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A STUDY OF THE 
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A STUDY OF THE 
HOLY SPIRIT 


iv By 
Tt. P. STAFFORD, A. M., Th: 'D. 


Professor of Christian Doctrines and Evidences 
in the Kansas City Theological Seminary 


Author of 
‘The Origin of Christian Science ’”’ 


PHILADELPHIA 
*THE JUDSON..PRESS 
BOSTON CHICAGO LOS ANGELES 


KANSAS CITY TORONTO 


Copyright, 1920, by 
GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary 


Published November, 1920 


TO 
THE MEMORY OF 


Anna Cutt Stafford 


¥ 


FOREWORD 


LUKE gives as a reason for writing his account 
of Christ the fact that many others also had writ- 
ten narratives concerning him. I make a like 
apology for publishing this study of the Holy 
Spirit. Many writers have given us books on 
the Holy Spirit. They have written nobly, with 
insight and inspiration. It is a thing greatly to be 
desired to have a place in their company. 

I may say that I have had opportunity to study 
carefully and at length the subject herein pre- 
sented. For several years I have given special at- 
tention to it in preaching and in lecturing to my 
students and to other audiences. I have been re- 
quested frequently on these occasions to print the 
discourses. 

While I am indebted to others for much that 
I have written, there are some thoughts expressed 
that are a result of original research. I have at- 
tempted also to apply the practical test to certain 
theories and to subject them to critical investi- 


FOREWORD 


gation to determine whether they are worthy or 
wanting. This study will, therefore, I hope, be 
to a small degree at least, a real contribution to 
the literature on the subject. 


T. P. STAFForD. 


Kansas City, Mo., October 1, 1920. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER Pace 
I. THE MEANING OF THE Day OF PEN- 
TECOST So. 28 6 2. "@ 6 Co OG O' © (e. O 5% eoes25u#eete @ @ I 
IJ. THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 23 
III. THe Mission oF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
TOV SHES CH URCHY wuive ond ae hiane 43 
IV. Tue Mission oF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
TO® THEY ORUD fu ttn, ore tens 65 
V. Sins AGAINST THE HOLy SPIRIT.... 87 
VI. THE PowER oF THE HOLY SPIRIT... 113 
hy HR UELOL Wy LRINITYS uote cee E38 


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THE MEANING OF: THE DAY. OF 
PENTECOST 


Come, thou almighty King, 

Help us thy name to sing, 
Help us to praise: 

Father! all glorious, 

O’er all victorious, 

Come, and reign over us, 
Ancient of days. 


Come, thou incarnate Word, 
Gird on thy mighty sword; 
Our prayer attend; 
Come, and thy people bless, 
And give thy word success: 
Spirit of holiness, 
On us descend. 


Come, Holy Comforter, 

Thy sacred witness bear 
In this glad hour: 

Thou, who almighty art, 

Now rule in every heart, 

And ne’er from us depart, 
Spirit of power! 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF 
PEN VECOS DT 


ET us first read carefully Acts 2 : I-21: 

“And when the day of Pentecost was 
now come, they were all together in one place. 
And suddenly there came from heaven a sound 
as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled 
all the house where they were sitting. And there 
appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like 
as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And 
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and . 
began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit 
gave them utterance. 

‘“ Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, 
devout men, from every nation under heaven. 
And when this sound was heard, the multitude 
came together, and were confounded, because 
that every man heard them speaking in his own 
language. And they were all amazed and mar- 
velled, saying, Behold, are not all these that speak 
Galilaans? And how hear we, every man in our 
own language wherein we were born? Parthians 
and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in 
Mesopotamia, in Judza and Cappadocia, in Pon- 

3 


4 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


tus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in 
Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and 
sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 
Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in 
our tongues the mighty works of God. And 
they were all amazed, and were perplexed, say- 
ing one to another, What meaneth this? But 
others mocking said, They are filled with new 
wine. 

“ But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted 
up his voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, 
Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jeru-— 
salem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto 
my word. For these are not drunken, as ye sup- 
pose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day; 
but this is that which hath been spoken through 
the prophet Joel: 3 


And it shall be in the last days, saith God, 

I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: 

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 

And your young men shall see visions, 

And your old men shall dream dreams: 7 

Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens 
in those days | 

Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall 
prophesy. 

And I will show wonders in the heaven above, 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 5 


And signs on the earth beneath; 

Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 

The sun shall be turned into darkness, 

And the moon into blood, 

Before the day of the Lord come, 

That great and notable day: 

And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the 
name of the Lord shall be saved.”’ 


There were five great days in the beginning of 
Christianity: the birthday of Jesus, the day of 
his death, the day of his resurrection, the day of 
his ascension, and the day of Pentecost. Each of 
these days was marked and made outstanding by 
mighty miracles. Considering them in their his- 
torical order and significance, we see how the 
value of the one depends on the truth of the 
other. The day of the ascension is glorious be- 
cause of the virgin birth, the crucifixion and 
resurrection of Christ; and the day of Pentecost 
was possible and is meaningful only as a result 
of the ascension of Christ to the place of honor 
and power. 

This day of Pentecost was a great day. It was 
one of the greatest of all days. There has not 
been a greater since and will not be until Jesus 
comes again. Peter so explained it to the multi- 
tude who came together to see what was hap- 


6 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


pening. “This is that which hath been spoken 
through the prophet Joel,” he says. Peter tells 
them that the prophecy of Joel is being fulfilled 
right now on this day of Pentecost and right here 
in this city of Jerusalem. 

The “last days’ of Acts 2 : 17 means the last 
period of time from Joel’s standpoint, not ours; 
and Joel lived in 775 B.C. The notion that “ last 
days’’ means the last days before Jesus comes 
again is very erroneous and makes Peter talk 
nonsense. Peter is talking to the point and not 
“scattering.” Later in an address he referred 
to the return of Christ, but not in this one. (Acts 
3: 20,21.) Here he is showing that the gift of 
the Spirit is proof that God has made Jesus 
whom they crucified both Lord and Christ. (Acts 
2: 36.) Let one turn to the prophecy of Joel 
and see that he does not use the expression “ last. 
days,” but ‘‘afterward”; that is, after certain 
events and conditions that he had just described. 
(Toel:2;*.28)) | 

The gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out | 
not at the close of the Christian age, but at the | 
beginning of it. | 

In like manner we should understand the ex- 
pressions near the close of Peter’s quotation from 
Joel, “the day of the Lord,” and “ that great and 
notable day.” These are descriptions and desig- 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 7 


nations of this day of Pentecost, not some day 
future to Peter and to us. Peter is not making 
prophecy in his address, but explaining prophecy 
and applying it to what was then happening, as 
he himself said he was doing. He is trying to 
convince the people not that Christ is going to 
come a second time, but that he has come the 
first time, which they were up to that moment 
unwilling to believe. 

So this day of Pentecost is called by inspira- 
tion the “ day of the Lord,” and the “ great and 
notable day.” 

By John the Baptist also this day was fore- 
told. He said of Jesus, ‘“‘ He shall baptize you 
in the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3: 11). 
Jesus promised it several times as the Gospel of 
John records. (John -7 > 393.14 :16,,. 203/15): 
26:16: 7.) And Luke tells us that just before 
the ascension Jesus repeated the promise finally 
in language akin to John’s just referred to. (Acts 
Teed 5,0: ) 

It is easy to see the divine wisdom of selecting 
the day of Pentecost for this momentous event. 
Of the three great feasts of the Jews the Pass- 
over was the first and greatest. Jesus was put 
to death during this feast and rose again the third 
day after. Worshipers were in Jerusalem from 
all parts of the civilized world. Many, of course, 


8 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


were remaining for the next feast, Pentecost, 
which, as the name indicates, came fifty days 
afterward. Through forty days of this time 
Jesus appeared at intervals to the disciples and 
spoke of the things of the kingdom. The Jews 
have had time to think over the crime of the 
crucifixion and the report of the resurrection. 
The disciples have had opportunity to reflect upon 
the still more glorious fact of the ascension. 
Luke says, ‘‘ Now there were dwelling at Jeru- 
salem Jews, devout men from every nation under 
heaven,’ and then he specifies the various coun- 
tries from which they came, and his specification 
sweeps the whole compass of the world with 
Jerusalem as the center. The time has come for 
a world propaganda of the gospel, and God “ sets 
the stage” for it in the religious center of the 
world, before representatives of all the nations 
there assembled. 
“ The number of the disciples that were meet- 
ing together regularly in Jerusalem during the 
ten days previous to Pentecost was, Luke says, 
about one hundred and twenty. He names the 
apostles and the mother of Jesus, and includes in 
the number also certain other women and the 
brothers of Jesus. ‘‘ These all with one accord,” 
he says, “continued steadfastly in prayer.” (Cf. 
Acts 1: 12-15.) They were there in obedience 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 8) 


and loyalty to Christ; they were there in the con- 
fidence that he would keep his word; they were 
there in the resurrection triumph and the victory 


peace of their leader. It was upon such men and 


women that God poured forth his Spirit. Had 
they been persons of a less ‘ heroic mold,” had 
they been in a different state of mind, had they 
been in some other place, the Holy Spirit would 
not have come upon them. 

But we may ask, Were these one hundred and 
twenty the only true and loyal believers? No, 
there were many more. Only a few days before 
more than five hundred persons met Jesus in an 
appointed place, a certain mountain in Galilee, 
most of whom evidently were true believers. It 
was not physically possible for all those who 
loved the Lord to be together in Jerusalem. Now 
as to all these absent disciples, did they not share 
in this gift of God? Was it limited to the one 
hundred and twenty only? Or were they in a 
sense representative of all the disciples then and 
since? I think this last is the correct view. Cer- 
tainly not all could have been there who would 
have been there. Dr. A. J. Gordon calls Pente- 
cost the “age-baptism of the Spirit.” As only 
three disciples saw the transfiguration glory of 
Jesus in the “ holy mount,” but they all were and 
we all are partakers of the benefit of that glory, 


IO A STUDY OF .THE HOLY SPIRIT 


so all believers are partakers of the benefit of 
Pentecost. By this I do not mean to say that 
every believer, because of Pentecost, has the 
power of the Spirit, but that every believer, be- % 
cause of Pentecost, has the privilege of receiving 
that power. 

How did the H a oF nay manifest himself ? 
How was it that the disciples and the people of 
Jerusalem, up to this time unbelievers, became 
aware of the Spirit? 

The answer is simple. By means of the senses, 
the ear and the eye. They heard from the sky 
“a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, 
and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
And there appeared unto them tongues of fire; 
and it sat upon each one of them” (Acts 2 : 2, 
3). The “sound as of the rushing of a mighty 
wind ” was so loud that the people throughout 
the city of Jerusalem heard it. It is so stated 
in the Standard Version. (Acts 2: 6.) 

Once before, at the baptism of Jesus, the Holy 
Spirit manifested himself in a visible form. “ He 
saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and 
coming upon him” (Matt. 3: 15). 

The Holy Spirit, himself, in his essential being, 
is invisible as God the Father is invisible. But he 
can manifest himself in visible forms; and we 
may see how fitting the different forms are to 


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THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST II 


the different purposes. Jesus was God’s message 
of love and peace to the world. So the Holy 
Spirit descended upon him as a dove. On the | 
day of Pentecost the age of world-wide witness- 
ing began. So the Holy Spirit descended upon 
them as tongues of fire, giving them power to 
speak in “ other tongues,” or foreign languages. 
They were to be as firebrands in the world, not 
incendiary fagots, but torches aflame with the » 
truth. 

The objective reality of the Holy Spirit ts 
vividly realized. He is manifested, as has been 
said, to the ear and to the eye. He is “ poured 
forth.” He“ filled all the house where they were 
sitting.’ And they were “ all filled with the Holy 
Spirit.” They were in the Spirit as a fish is in the 
water. So John the Baptist and Jesus, speaking 
in advance of the event, said they would be “ bap- 
tized in the Holy Spirit.”” They were immersed 
in the Spirit as one is immersed in water. And 
also they were “ filled’ with the Holy Spirit as 
one’s lungs are filled with air. They did not think 
of the Spirit as something subjective, as an idea 
or a sensation. There is not a word said as to 
how the disciples felt. But we are told how 
they were affected and what they did as a result 
of being “ filled” with the Spirit. If one thinks 
that the purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit 


12 A’ STUDY OF LTHE: HOLY SPIRIT 


into one’s life is ecstatic exhilaration or emotional 
thrills or selfish enjoyment of any kind, he is 
missing the truth. It matters little how we feel, 
but it is all important what we are and what 
we do. 

The immediate and outstanding effect upon the 
disciples of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon 
them on the day of Pentecost was that they were 
given power instantaneously to speak im lan- 
guages that they had not before been acquainted 
with. , 

“ They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and 
began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit 
gave them utterance” (Acts 2: 4). “ Other 
tongues” means simply languages other than 
their own. When the Jews and proselytes from 
the regions of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Arabia, 
Egypt, North Africa, Italy, and the islands of 
the Mediterranean Sea, etc., being attracted to 
the spot by the strange sound, drew near and 
heard the disciples talking, some mocking said, 
“ They are filled with new wine ”’; but others who 
understood them said in astonishment, ‘‘ Behold, 
are not all these that speak Galileans?”’ and yet 
“we hear them speaking in our tongues the 
mighty works of God.” 

So the “gift of tongues”? was not ability to 
speak a language that no one understood, as some 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 193 


have foolishly supposed, but it was the power to 
speak in a new language without having learned 
it. The expression “unknown tongue” found 
several times in the fourteenth chapter of First 
Corinthians, in the old version, is a faulty trans- 
lation and does not occur in the Greek. It is clear 
that Paul is not thinking of a language of mean- 
ingless sounds, for he says in verse 28, that if 
one who would speak in the church cannot make 
himself understood or cannot get his speech in- 
terpreted, he should keep silence. It certainly is 
no small sin against the Holy Spirit to claim that 
the idiotic utterance of senseless sounds is his 
inspired language. 

The gift of the Holy Spirit had a practical 
value there and then. God wanted these “ devout 
men from every nation under heaven” to hear 
the gospel. He willed also graciously to em- 
phasize their testimony with a miracle, namely, 
enabling his unlettered disciples instantaneously 
to speak in languages hitherto unknown by them. 
Paul speaking, it seems, of this power of speech 
given directly by God, says, “ Tongues are for a 
sign, not to them that believe, but to the unbe- 
lieving”’ (1 Cor. 14: 22). It was this great 
miracle on the day of Pentecost together with 
many other influences that converted the three 
thousand persons. 


14 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


In what sense did the Holy Spirit come on 
the day of Pentecost? 

Dr. A. J. Gordon says, “ Just as Jesus Christ 
had a time-ministry which he came into the world 
to fulfil, and having accomplished it returned to 
the Father, so the Holy Spirit, for the fulfilment 
of a definite mission, came into the world at an 
appointed time” (‘‘ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 
22). He approves Augustine’s designation of 
Pentecost as the dies natalis, the birthday, of the 
Spirit. \(Ibid., p: 27.) 

True, but was the Spirit never in the world be- 
fore Pentecost? It would be a great blunder to 
think that. Christ came into the world when 
he was born in Bethlehem, but he had been in the 
world also before. (Cf. Acts 7 : 38.) So the 
Holy Spirit was in the world before the day of 
Pentecost. He was active in creation. (Gen. I :¥ 
2.) He was with David. (Ps. 51: 11.) He was 
with the men who wrote the prophecies of the 
Old Testament. (2 Peter 1: 21.) He was with 
John the Baptist from his birth. (Luke 1 : 15.) 
He was at the baptism of Jesus and with him 
throughout his ministry. (Matt. 3: 16; 4: 1 
Luke 4: 14; John 3: 34.) But he came with 
special power and for a special purpose on the 
day of Pentecost. He came then to dwell in his: 
people and to be with them forever. (John 14: 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 15 


16h 233) Matt 225 10)'20.:) ” Fie came/to fit the 
disciples for being witnesses of Christ. Jesus 
said, “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy 
Spirit is come.upon you” (Acts 1: 8). 

Dr. Ae: He Strong says: 


Before Christ “the Holy Spirit was not” (John 7: 
39), just as before Edison electricity was not. There 
was just as much electricity in the world before Edison 
as there is now. Edison has only taught us its exis- 
tence and how to use it. Still we can say that before 
Edison electricity as a means of lighting, warming, and 
transporting people had no existence. So until Pente- 


cost the Holy Spirit, as a revealer of Christ, “was not 


de | 
ry 


yet 


I think it is a mistake to infer, as Doctor Gor- 
don does, that the disciples made a mistake in 
selecting Matthias to take the place of Judas. 
(“ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 141.) Luke says 
in Acts 1 : 26, ‘“‘ And he was numbered with the 
eleven apostles.”” This is his statement about 
thirty years after the selection took place. Cer- 
tainly if it had been a mistake, it would have been 
discovered before that date. Are we to suppose 
that these disciples were left in darkness during 
the ten days from the ascension to Pentecost? 
They certainly knew enough to know that they 
were, if they were; and they certainly had no 


i «Systematic Theology,’ Vol. I, p. 317. 


16 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


mind to take things into their own hands. No, 
we are not to conclude that as the Holy Spirit 
came in a special way on the day of Pentecost, 
he was with the disciples in no sense before that 
day. Augustine spoke of the Holy Spirit as be- 
ing in the world before Pentecost as a “ transient 
visitor.” 

The view is best, it seems, that Pentecost came 
once for all. Pentecost was not repeated and is 
not now to be expected, though Pentecostal power 
is promised to all believers and is to be earnestly 
sought for by them. It is true that there was 
something like Pentecost in Samaria (Acts 8: 
14ff.), in Czesarea (Acts 10: 44ff.), and in 
Ephesus (Acts 19 : 2ff.), and perhaps in Corinth 
(cf 1 Cor 1452 22); but it is better ot to con: 
sider these to be repetitions of Pentecost, but as 
reproductions of certain features of the Pente- 
costal event. That is, they were instances of 
the special enduement of the Spirit accompanied 
with miraculous manifestations, such as took 
place on Pentecost. They were rather confirma- 
tions of the day of Pentecost. We should not 
infer that the Holy Spirit came to all believers 
even then as he came on Pentecost, much less 
that he so comes to Christians now. That was 
an age of miracles; ours is not. The expres- 
sions, “ baptism of the Spirit” and “ spiritual 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 17 


baptism,” should not, it seems, be applied to our 
experiences now. They are not found in the 
Bible. “ Baptized in the Holy Spirit ” is the ex- 
pression used to describe the Pentecostal experi- 
ences only. It is not a figurative expression. It 
describes a literal fact. The disciples on that 
day were immersed in the Holy Spirit as actually 
as a fish is immersed in water, as we have said. 
On other occasions it is said men were “ filled” 
with the Spirit, but not immersed in the Spirit. 

The day of Pentecost 1s proof, the best proof, 
that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead 
and is the Son of God. 

““He was declared to be the Son of God with 
power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the 
resurrection from the dead’”’ (Rom. I : 4). 

This was the theme of Peter’s address, and it 
was the consideration that converted the three 
thousand persons. The Jesus whom they cru- 
cified has become both Lord and Christ. “ Let 
all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, 
that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, 
this Jesus whom ye crucified’ (Acts 2 : 36). 

The day of Pentecost proclaims the fact that 
the spiritual age of the world has arrived. 

It was not the day of the “first gospel ser- 
mon” or of the beginning of the gospel, or of the 
founding of the church as some have erroneously 

" 


18 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


affirmed. (Cf. Mark 1: 1 and Luke 16: 16.) 
It is the day of God’s announcement that Christ 
has entered into “ that which is within the veil,” 
that the invisible Christ is the real Christ. As 
God, by angels, announced the incarnation of 
Christ in the visible world, so by the coming of 
the Holy Spirit he declares his enthronement in 
the invisible world. 

Luke remarks that while Jesus was on the cross 
the “ veil of the temple was rent in the midst ” 
(Luke 23: 45). This would seem to signify 
that the earthly tabernacle, a mere pattern, is of 
use no longer and that, and because that, the 
heavenly, the real, of which it was only a type, 
has become perfected. 

The criterion for true Christianity is not any- 
thing visible, physical, or external, but something 
invisible, inward, and spiritual. The kingdom of 
God is spiritual. It came “not with observa- 
tion.” To identify the kingdom of God with a 
visible organization is to miss the significance 
of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost sounds the 
death-knell of ecclesiasticism. We should place 
no limitations upon the grace of God, as we can- 
not place limitations upon his power. Pentecost 
means that divine grace is commensurate with 
divine power. We should not make little chan- 
nels for the grace of God as men make irrigation 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST I9 


ditches. for water; for the grace of God, like a 
flood, will flow over them. It is “ poured forth” 
_ as rain from bursting clouds. 

The day to which the law and the prophets — 
looked, the day when idolatry should be dead, has 
come. | 
The day of Pentecost proclaims the absolute 
democracy of Christianity. 

* And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on 
the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Acts 2: 
21). Access to God is the right of every soul. 


“T will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: 

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 

And your young men shall see visions, 

And your old men shall dream dreams: 

Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens 
in those days 

Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall 
Prophesy ONC Ac 7 TS 


In the kingdom of God all persons have equal 
privileges, the young and the old, the men and 
the women, the free and the slave. 

The day of Pentecost meant social revolution. 
It meant death and destruction to all institutions 
of autocracy then. It means it now. Kaisers and 
kings and princes and popes and autocrats of all 


20%: AGSTUDY (OP “CEE HOLY SEinit 


kinds, civil and religious, are by their very being 
enemies of the kingdom of God. Pentecost is 
God’s call for their abdication or for their de- 
thronement. 

Equality of rights in the kingdom of God 
means equality of rights everywhere. Royalty 
is a crime. It is a conspiracy against humanity. 
To accept it is idolatry and prostitution. The 
more we banish kings from the earth, the more 
the people will come to their own. Every Chris- 
fianas'a kings (Chia Peter'2 oy Revise 20553 
10.) In crowning another fellow man he de- 
thrones himself. Mr. James W. Gerard, ex-am- 
bassador to Germany, speaking before the close 
of the World War of despotic rule there and 
elsewhere in the world, says: “ Royalty still lives 
to torture and retard civilization. Its methods of 
perpetuation are unchanged since the Middle 
Ages.” 

The day of Pentecost is the day of the people. 

Dr. B. F. Meyer beautifully says: 

In Switzerland I have gone out on the veranda of 
the hotel at three or four o’clock in the morning and 
looked at the range of mountains that rose before me. 
At first all is gray and damp; but as I look, it seems 
as if God’s angel has been stepping from one summit 
to another, lighting fires all along his path. Beneath, 
the mist still hangs over the valley, the clouds roll and 
tumble in endless confusion. As I wait and watch the 


THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 21 


sun rises. The mists roll up and disappear. By noon 
the sun’s rays have poured into every nook and crevice 
in the valley. So I think the Holy Spirit before Pente- 
cost struck with living flame only the great mountain 
peaks among men. That summit was Moses; that, 
Samson; that, David; that, Jeremiah. But at the day 
of Pentecost, he who had been given only to the spir- 
itual aristocrats of the race became the common prop- 
erty of the democracy. 


iy 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


Our blest Redeemer, ere he breathed 
His tender, last farewell, 

A Guide, a Comforter, bequeathed 
With us to dwell. 


He came sweet influence to impart, 
A gracious, willing guest, 

While he can find one humble heart 
Wherein to rest. 


And his that gentle voice we hear, 
Soft as the breath of even, 
That checks each thought, that calms each 
fear, 
And speaks of heaven. 


Spirit of purity and grace, 
Our weakness, pitying, see; 

O make our hearts, thy dwelling-place, 
More worthy thee. 


TITHE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


N Christian theology we have three outstand- 
ing doctrines, of which one is partly and two 
are wholly new and original. 

What the earnest men and the great thinkers 
of the world saw dimly as to the nature of God, 
is, in Christianity, revealed clearly. God is one, 
God is good, God is the heavenly Father of his 
people. This is the sweet light of revelation. 
This doctrine of God is partially new and orig- 
inal. 

The doctrine of the Son of God is altogether 
new and original. It does not appear that pagan 
minds have had even the idea of it. That one 
born of woman is the only-begotten and eternal 
Son of God, through whom is the world’s re- 
demption, is a truth that never entered into the 
thoughts of uninspired men. (Cf. 1 Cor. 2: 9.) 

But the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is, if pos- 
sible, yet more original. Not only do the utter- 
ances of pagans contain no thought of such a 
divine being as the Holy Spirit, but men of the 
world now with the light of the gospel about 
them do not apprehend him. “The Spirit of 


25 


26 -A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


truth; whom the world cannot receive; for it be- 
holdeth him not, neither knoweth him ” (John 
1A 07) 

It will surprise one, if he has not done so be- 
fore, to consider how often the Spirit is referred 
to in the Scriptures. If we leave out of account 
the Messianic predictions, he is mentioned oftener 
and with more definiteness in the time of the 
Old Testament than is Christ. Dr. James E. 
Cumming finds eighty-seven references to the 
Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. (Cf. “ Through 
the Eternal Spirit,” p. 17-24.) This is a striking © 
fact and is sufficient to correct once and for all 
the error that the Holy Spirit was unknown to 
the saints of the Old Testament. (Cf. Gen. I : 2; 
6433 Pxoduat 23s 4Nam. w240 7/2) Sade Ove 
Love Chrotchs lanes bie Bi Leas Osi. 
Dake Ts 1535 3075 2204) 

But when we come to the time of the New 
Testament, we find that references to the being 
and work of the Holy Spirit abound. John the 
Baptist foretold his coming on the day of Pente- 
cost. Jesus had much to say of him. The apos- 
tles, Peter and John, spoke often of him. And 
Paul, who was not with Jesus when he was on 
earth, but who was taught by him, said more 
about the Holy Spirit than all the other apostles: 
put together. 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 27 


Our task is to understand, in so far as we 
can, the character of the Holy Spirit. We honor 
the Holy Spirit in so doing. Knowledge is neces- . 
sary to the highest form of worship, and to un- 
derstand the Holy Spirit is itself true worship. 
(Cf. John 4: 23.) It is, therefore, a mark of 
piety to desire a knowledge of the Holy Spirit. 
Only spiritual people wish to know more about 
the Holy Spirit. Indifferent Christians are dull 
as to the subject. Sinners mock at it or spurn it. 

The natural process is first to study the names, 
titles, and descriptions of the Holy Spirit. In be- 
coming acquainted with a person we first learn 
his name or names and official titles, if he has 
such. 

God the Father has revealed his glorious and 
holy nature to us in this way. First his name is 
simply God; then it is God Almighty; then it is 
Jehovah, and finally it is our heavenly Father. 
ere his Pais Es) kod.) Oe a bart: 
GO 0') 

To the second person of the Trinity also are 
given many names and titles, all of which point 
to the different elements of his character, and lay 
stress upon his manifold relations to men. He 
is the Messiah, the Christ, the chosen of God; 
he is the Son of man; he is the Lamb of God; he 
is the Lion of the tribe of Judah; he is the Prince 


28 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


of Peace. Our Saviour has all virtues and needs 
all designations and descriptions to picture them 
to us. But after language has done its noblest, 
he remains still the “ unspeakable gift” of God. 

In like manner, for the third person of the 
Trinity many names and descriptions are found, 
and each with rich significance, revealing offices, 
relations, and qualities of character. 

The favorite name for the third person of the 
Trinity is Spirit. The term Ghost of the com- 
mon version means the same, but has now unde- 
sirable suggestions. 

We may well stop and meditate long upon this 
fact. As the name Jesus has in it infinite mean- 
ing when applied to the second Person of the 
Trinity, so the name Spirit has in it unlimited 
meaning when used by inspired writers of the 
third person of the Trinity. Spirit is not simply 
a designation; it is also a description. It is a 
term that interprets. It is, like Israel and Jesus 
and Peter, a character-name. 

[ heard a preacher ,of note say that he had once 
wondered why, since Father and Son were the 
names of the first and second persons of the 
Trinity, the name mother, rather than Spirit, was 
not given to the third person of the Trinity. 
Then he said that the fact, that this is not the 
case, has in it great value for us. 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 29 


The Greek word for spirit means wind, air, 
breath, life. 

The name Spirit therefore corresponds to the 
invisible character of the divine person and em- 
phasizes it. The essence of godliness is not in 
anything sensible. The criterion of true Chris- 
tianity is not something visible or external. 
“The kingdom of God cometh not with observa- 
tion.” The kingdom of God is not territory, nor 
organization, nor force, nor ceremony. It is 
moral suasion and love. The spiritual nature of 
the kingdom of God, of which the prophets were 
conscious when they denounced idolatry, formal- 
ity, and a false nationalism, is revealed fully in 
the New Testament. Any church that claims to 
be commensurate with or identical with the king- 
dom of God is an apostate church. 

Jesus at his ascension, like the high priest of 
the Jewish temple on the great day of Atonement, 
passed into that “ which is within the veil” and 
became invisible. His great representative on 
earth is also invisible. ‘“‘ Whom the world can- 
not receive; for it beholdeth him not.” The Holy 
Spirit may manifest himself in sensible forms, 
that is, miraculously, but he himself is not dis- 
cerned by the senses. That psychological theory 
that holds that all knowledge comes by way of the 
five senses will not do for Christians. 


30 A) STUDY OF THE: HOLY > SPIRIT 


Each person of the Trinity shrinks from mate- 
rial embodiment and manifestation. “No man 
hath seen God at any time” (John 1: 18). 
“Though we have known Christ after the flesh, 
yet now we know him so no more”’ (2 Cor. 5 : 
16). When they appear in visible form it is 
miraculous and unusual. The Holy Spirit is like 
the Father and the Son. It is strictly true to say 
Ahat the Holy Spirit is felt, not seen. 

The term Spirit suggests life and the source of 
life. The Jewish mind identified life and breath. 
CCHS OD en ei ah Baia REVEL ont Ea) ane Teaae 
Holy Spirit has a vital relation to us. In him we 
live. Every Christian is born of the Spirit. (John. 
3: 3-8.) The Spirit is preeminently the giver 
of life. ‘‘ The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 
lifes) 62: Goria oC is TiCon: 15) cae oni 
642762:4Rom: 8 Soro, 7b). 

It may ‘not be amiss to say that the Holy Spirit 
is “ the mother-principle in the Godhead.” 

Genesis 2: 7 says, “ The Lord God formed 
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man be- 
came a living soul.” Compare with that John 
20: 22: “And when he had said this, he 
breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive 
ye the Holy Spirit.’’ A live Christian and a Pin 
ee man are one and the same. 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 31 


Usually but not always the noun, Spirit, as the 
name of the third person of the Trinity, is pre- 
ceded by the adjective holy. He is not simply 
a spirit. He is the Holy Spirit; as the second 
person of the Trinity he is not simply a@ son, but 
the Son of God. 

There are many kinds of spirits: “ evil spirit ” 
(2 Sam. 15: 14ff.), ‘‘lying spirit” (2 Kings 22: 
22), “spirit of error” (1 John 4: 6), “ spirit 
of anti-Christ”” (1 John 4: 3). But the Spirit 
of God is holy. I believe that if we understand 
this adjective in this connection properly, we will 
think of the Holy Spirit as the very essence of 
holiness; as having that degree of holiness, or, 
rather, as being that quality of holiness, which 
should prevent us from thinking of him as other 
than holy. We cannot think of the sun’s ray as 
other than light. It is so light or such light that 
it is the essence of light. To think of it other- 
wise is to violate the very law of our mind. If 
we should think of the Holy Spirit as being other 
than holy or speak of him so, we would commit 
a great sin. This is, it seems, “ blasphemy 
against the Holy Spirit,” the sin that Jesus said 
would never be forgiven. It is moral, spiritual, 
and eternal suicide. | 

Jesus four times calls the Holy Spirit the Para- 
clete. (John 14 : 16, 26; 15: 26;16: 7.) Our 


32 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - 


common version and many others translate this 
word by Comforter. When our common ver- 
sion was made, three hundred years ago, this 
word meant one who strengthens, one who fully 
strengthens; it then gave the thought of the 
Greek better than it does now. Now it means 
one who gives consolation, and this sense is too 
limited and weak: The Holy Spirit did not come 
to give weak men “surcease from sorrow % 
merely, but to make weak men strong and strong | 
men stronger. It seems to me that we ought 
with good grace to reject once and for all this 
word, comforter, no matter how much it jars” 
morbid sentiment to do it. | 

The Greek word means one called to one’s side, 
an advocate, a helper. Neither of these words 
is a perfect translation. There seems to be none 
that is. But either of them is better now than 
comforter. Jesus is thinking of the disciples as 
orphans. (John 14: 18.) They needed some 
one to protect them, to defend them, to guide 
them, and to help them. All this I read into and 
think into the word Paraclete. 

And all this is to be read into it. For Jesus 
says, “another Paraclete.” In this little modifier 
another, we get the full truth. The Holy Spirit 
was to do for them what Jesus had been doing. 
He was to take the place in their lives that Jesus 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 33 


had been filling. Jesus had been their Para- 
clete, their Defender on earth. (Cf. John 18 ; 
8.) But now the Holy Spirit is to have this 
charge and Jesus is to become their Paraclete, 
their Advocate, in heaven. (Cf. 1 John 2 : 1.) 

Twice Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit 
of truth” (John 14 : 17; 16: 13). And in the' 
last case he adds, “ He shall guide you into all the 
truth.” Before he had said, “ He shall teach you 
all things” (John 14 : 26). 

We should not be disposed to limit or minimize 
the Spirit’s relation to the truth, but rather to 
magnify it, and accordingly to put into the above 
words of Jesus all that reason and faith may see 
that they naturally contain. 

Summing up, then, the thoughts of this lan- 
guage, which have to do with our ‘present sub- 
ject, we note: 

First, that truth, like holiness, is an essential 
Lee of the Spirit. Truth belongs to the | 
character of the Spirit as it belongs to the char- 
acter of the Father and of the Son. When it is 
said that God is a “ God of truth” (Ps. 31 : 5), 
more is meant than that God speaks the truth. 
It is meant that a lie is with God a moral im- 
possibility. (Cf. Heb. 6 : 18.) When Jesus said, 
“Tam the truth” (John 14: 6), he did not 
mean to identify himself and the principle of 

Cc 


34 A STUDY OF THE, HOLY ,SPIRIT 


truth, but to assert that error is foreign to his 
nature. We may say of the Holy Spirit as the 
apostle said of the Father, “in him is no dark- 
ness at all .(r John 1): 5). 

We note, secondly, that the Holy Spirit, like 
the Father and the Son, is the source of truth. 
Truth must have an origin as light must have. 
Error has a source. There is a “lying spirit ”’ 
(1 ‘Kings 22 3 22)( Every lie that’has gone 
forth to deceive and curse the world was con- 
ceived and uttered by some being. When the 
devil “speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; 
for he is a liar, and the father thereof” (John 
ne ee 

God is the author and fountain of truth. 
“ God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” 
(1 John 1: 5). The Son also is the source of 
truth, :; He’ said; “I am the light, of the: world” 
(John 84: 12}.chJohn 1:9). Hesaid, ~ L.am 
the truth” (John 14: 6). “Grace and truth 
came through Jesus Christ” (John 1: 17). 
Christ is the world’s prophet, the world’s true 
teacher. So also is the Holy Spirit the true 
teacher, because he is the Spirit of truth. 

We note, thirdly, that one whom the Holy 
Spirit teaches must be a partaker of the Spinit. 
Only he who has the spirit of truth can know the 
truth. Another way of saying the same thing is 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 35 


that the Holy Spirit, in his teaching, imparts 
himself to the one that is taught. ‘“‘ Causing one 
to know ” is thought to be the best definition of 
teaching. If so, the Holy Spirit is in one sense, 
and the profoundest sense, the only teacher; for 
only he can really cause one to know. The Holy 
Spirit does not dictate the truth; he imparts it; 
he implants it; he inbreathes it. His teaching is 
a begetting. It is a self-giving and a like-creat- 
ing. This seems to be John’s thought when he 
affirms that the “Spirit is the truth” (1 John 
opi roe 

Very interesting is this statement from Presi- 
dent Wilson: | 


I have spent the greater part of my life doing what 
is called teaching, but many of the pupils of most of 
our universities systematically resist being taught. I 
remember being somewhat comforted and reassured 
some years ago, after I had taught ten or fifteen years, 
by being told by a friend of mine at the Yale University, 
who had taught for twenty years, that he had found 
that the human mind possessed infinite resources for 
resisting the introduction of knowledge. 


One who receives ideas must have in him sym- 
pathy for and appreciation of those ideas. He 
who can create this condition of mind is the 
greatest teacher. The Holy Spirit does this for 
those who receive the true knowledge of God, 


36 A STUDY OF (THE, HOLY “SPIRIT 


Discussing in a penetrating way a _ kindred 
thought, Dr. Frank Crane says: “ Furnishing 
proof is the smallest part of convincing a man. 
The most difficult part consists in getting his 
mind into a condition to receive the proof.” 

Paul says in First Corinthians: “‘ But we re- 
ceived, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit 
which is from God; that we might know the 
things that were freely given to us of God” (1 
Cor. 2: 12). Again: “ The natural man receiv- 
eth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they 
are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know 
them, because they are spiritually judged ” 
(1 Cor. 2: 14). In Second Corinthians he says 
that the Jews who know well the letter of the 
law, do not really understand it because they 
have not the Spirit; that they, when they read 
it, have 4° ver upon) their “heart (2) Cor, 
Lape 

So it is with many Gentiles also. They are 
“ever learning, but never come to the knowledge 
of the truth.’ Because the spirit of error and 
not of truth is in them. 

Dr. A. J. Gordon thinks of a horse and its rider 
before a sculptured figure, a work of art, in a 
park. The man admires the beauty of it, the 
heroism that is there pictured. His eyes are 
aglow, and his soul is thrilled. But the eyes of 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ay. 


the horse are dull. It has no soul, no understand-. 
ing. So the natural man is dull and unmoved 
before the beauties and glories of salvation. But, — 
when the Holy Spirit teaches him, he knows and 
exults and loves. 

So much we learn as to the character of the 
Holy Spirit from the names, titles, and descrip- 
tions of him. We come now to learn of his 
character from his acts and relations, from his 
disposition, and from the position of honor and 
power that he occupies. 

We may state in advance that these considera- 
tions compel us to think of the Holy Spirit as a 
person and as God. We defer the great subject 
of the deity of the Holy Spirit to another chap- 
ter. We limit ourselves here to the subject of his 
personality. 

It is admitted that the Holy Spirit is nowhere 
in the Scriptures called a person. Jesus Christ 
likewise is not. But this argument has no weight. 
Many things are true that are not affirmed. Be- 
sides, clear implications are just as reliable, and 
may be more convincing, than positive statements. 

We mean by person a being with reason, will, 
and moral sense. Things and animals do not 
have these; men, angels, and God do. 

If the Holy Spirit is not a distinct person, then 
it must be one of the following things: 


38 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


I. Another name for God; the purpose, 
thought, and mind of God; that is, God himselt ; 
as when we say “the spirit of a man,” meaning 
the man himself. This cannot be a correct view, 
for it fails to meet the demands of many passages 
of Scripture. At the baptism of Jesus the three 
beings of the Trinity are separate and distinct. 
(Matt. 3 : 16,17.) Jesus spoke of the Father’s 
giving and sending the Holy Spirit to the disci- 
ples, and of his own sending of him to them, and 
of the Holy Spirit’s proceeding from the Father. 
(lohn i 45610265) 157: 265102) 7.)5° Thislan= 
guage would have been impossible if the Holy 
Spirit were the same person as the Father. The 
Holy Spirit makes intercession to the Father for 
us. (Rom. 8: 26.) This certainly does not 
mean that the Father prays to himself. Jesus in 
the Great Commission and Paul in his oft-re- 
peated benediction think of the three of the 
Trinity as separate and distinct beings. (Matt. 
Bolo Con Tavel ay) 

It is true that there is an identity of the Father 
and the Spirit, as there is also an identity of the 
Son and the Spirit, but this identity is such as is 
possible between persons.. (Cf. Acts 5: 3, 4; 
BOR Oe Tay 1S she Or. 2100) 

2. A condition, or state, of the human mind. 
The Holy Spirit, according to this view, is not 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 39 


an objective reality, but something subjective 
only. 

Spinoza taught that the Holy Spirit is a supe- 
rior understanding or intuition of religious truth. - 
This was what came to the disciples on the day 
of Pentecost. The founder of Christian Science 
repeats this pagan explanation. It is at least 
semi-infidelity. 

It is only a little better to hold that the Holy 
Spirit is a good condition of mind; that to have 
the Holy Spirit is to have the thought or mind 
of God. But certainly when Jesus told the dis- 
ciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be 
endued with power from on high, he was not 
promising them that they would at a certain time 
become pious. 

A subjective state of the human mind does not 
work miracles nor convert sinners. The Holy 
Spirit is not an enlightened conscience. 

Once, when I was a young man, a shrewd old 
gentleman was trying to convert me to his de- 
nominational views. He had made out a very 
good case from certain texts of the Bible. Be- 
ing somewhat disturbed by his arguments, and 
sparring for time, I asked him what his denom- 
ination taught as to the Holy Spirit. He said: 
“Suppose you are on a journey, and I fall in 
with you and make a proposition to you, which 


40 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


you at first decline to accept. But as we ride 
along, I argue the case and convert you to my 
view, and you join with me in the undertaking. 
You may be said now to have my mind. So its 
one who has the Holy Spirit. He has God’s mind 
or God’s view of things.’ Then I saw how 
hollow his system was. 

The distinction between the human spirit and 
the Holy Spirit is clearly recognized by Paul. 
(Rom-8*: '16;,206527,; Gal 393) 2,7 lthasdifiealt 
to imagine how a reader of the Bible could have 
any other notion about it. If then there be a 
oneness of the spirit of the Christian with the 
Holy Spirit, it is a oneness that is possible be- 
tween persons. It is like the oneness of Christ 
and the Christian. It is not identity, but unity. 
(GET COLAO E75 

The doctrine of the»Holy Spirit involves a 
kind of mysticism, but not such as causes to 
vanish the personality of the worshiper or of his 
God. Christian mysticism has no kinship with 
pantheistic mysticism. 

3. A third theory is that the Holy Spirit is 
simply an influence; a moral force that makes 
for righteousness ; like the temperance movement, 
for example. 

To state this view is sufficient to refute it. 
Paul says, “ Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God ” 


THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 4I 


(Eph. 4 : 30). An influence cannot be grieved. 
Only a person can be grieved. The Holy Spirit 
makes intercession to the Father. An influence 
cannot make intercession. The Holy Spirit is 
not an influence, but the Holy Spirit, like a great 
and good man, has an influence. 

If the Holy Spirit cannot be explained by any 
of the above theories, which are really inspired 
by unbelief rather than by faith and sound criti- 
cism, then it must follow that he is a person; 
for which view there are many more proofs than 
are here given. Person is the best word at our 
command. Should a better one be invented we 
will use that. 

It is noticeable that as one grows in grace, he 
becomes more aware of the personal character 
of the Holy Spirit. We may say, indeed, that 
one’s progress as a Christian is measured by his 
conception of the Holy Spirit as a person and 
his feeling corresponding and responding thereto. 
In this fact of Christian experience there is a 
most conclusive demonstration of the personality 
of the Spirit. There is no better proof that God 
is a person than that found in experience. Those 
who think of God and worship him as such, be- 
come fervent and spiritual and strong. Those 
who think of him otherwise, become dull and 
materialistic and weak. In like manner Chris- 


42 A STUDY OF THE. HOLY SPIRIT 


tians who are conscious of the Spirit as a person, 
become prayerful, unworldly, and Christlike. 
Christians who are lacking in this consciousness, 
are lacking also in these virtues. He is a little 
rude in speech who speaks to a mother of her 
babe as if. Her child is infinitely more than this 
impersonal pronoun indicates. So he who uses 
“it” for the Holy Spirit, is in spiritual knowl- 
edge somewhat crude. Jesus used “ he,’ not 
“it,” in referring to the Holy Spirit. (John 16 : 
ETA.) 

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord 
thy God in vain.” This means that, whenever we 
speak of God, we should do it with thoughtful- 
ness and reverence. Speaking carelessly of the 
Holy Spirit is also unbecoming. It is profanity. 

We see, then, if our discussion of this subject 
has proceeded upon right lines, how a knowledge 
of the character of the Holy Spirit is vitally re- 
lated to the character of Christians. 


Itt 


TARE TMISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
TO THE CHURCH 


Lead, kindly Light! amid th’ encircling gloom, 
Lead thou me on; 

The night is dark, and I am far from home; 
Lead thou me on; 

Keep thou my feet: I do not ask to see 

The distant scene; one step enough for me. 


I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou 
Shouldst lead me on; 

I loved to choose and see my path; but now 
Lead thou me on: 

I loved the garish day, and spite of fears, 

Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years. 


So long thy power has blessed me, sure it still 
Will lead me on 

O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till 
The night is gone; 

And with the morn those angel faces smile 

Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile! 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
TOs TIE CHURCH 


Tis important that we know the purpose of 
Christ’s coming into the world. He came “ to 
seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19 : 
10). He came to glorify the Father. (John 17 : 
4.) We cannot really understand Christ until we 
know the purpose for which he came. 

Likewise it is important to know the purpose of 
the Holy Spirit’s coming. We will appreciate 
and honor him in proportion to our knowledge of 
the work he came to do. 

The Holy Spirit’s mission is threefold: in be- 
half of Christ, of the church, and of the world. 

The primary purpose of the Spirit’s coming 
was to glorify Christ and to make effectual what 
he had done; to realize in believers the fact and 
value of his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus 
says: “‘ He shall glorify me: for he shall take of 
mine, and shall declare it unto you” (John 16: 
14,15). Again, “ He shall bear witness of me” 
(John 15: 26). And again, “He shall not 
speak from himself; but what things soever he 
shall hear, these shall he speak’ (John 16 : 13). 

: 45 


40 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


As Jesus came to glorify the Father, so the 
Holy Spirit came to glorify the Son. On the 
day of Pentecost the divine character and mission 
of Christ were made real to the disciples. Jesus 
said, “In that day ye shall know that I am in 
my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 
14/1/20), ° Vhat' day.” means Pentecest... Dhen 
was realized in the minds of the disciples the 
glory of Christ. 

Dr. A. J. Gordon expresses the truth concern- 
ing this matter accurately and forcefully thus: * 


In the order of the unfolding ages we see each of the 
persons of the Godhead in turn exercising an earthly 
ministry and dealing with man in the work of redemp- 
tion. Under the law God the Father comes down to 
earth and speaks to men from the cloud of Sinai and 
from the glory above the mercy-seat; under grace, God 
the Son is in the world, teaching, suffering, dying, and 
rising again; under the dispensation of election and out- 
gathering now going on, the Holy Spirit is here carry- 
ing on the work of renewing and sanctifying the 
church, which is the body of Christ. There is a neces- 
sary succession in these divine ministries, both in time 
and in character. In the days of Moses it might have 
been said, “Christ is not yet,” because the economy 
of God-Jehovah was not completed. The law must 
first be given, with its sacrifices and types and cere- 
monies and shadows; man must be put on trial under 


+“ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 33f. 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 47 


the law, till the appointed time of his schooling should 
be completed. Then must Christ come to fulfil all types 
and terminate all sacrifices in himself; to do for us 
“what the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh,’ and to become “the end of the law 
for righteousness to every one that believeth.” When 
in turn Christ had completed his redemption-work by 
dying on the cross for our sins, and rising again from 
the dead for our justification, and had taken his place at 
God’s right hand for perpetual intercession, then the 
Holy Ghost came down to communicate and realize to 
the church the finished work of Christ. In a word, 
as God the Son fulfils to men the work of God the 
Father, so God the Holy Ghost realizes to human 
hearts the work of God the Son. 


I think we can truly say that if the Holy Spirit 
had not come, Christ would have failed. We 
would be compelled, judging from analogies, to 
say, that he would have faded from the memories 
of men. It is said that a certain French enthu- 
siast recounted to Rousseau his plan for the sal- 
vation of the world, to whom Rousseau replied, 
‘ Your plan seems to be a good one, but you must 
get yourself crucified for it in order that it may 
succeed.”” But that is not the whole truth. Many 
a cause has died with the martyrdom of its 
founder. Socrates lived a beautiful life and 
preached a beautiful gospel and died for it, but 
all this did not make him a savior of Athens, nor 


48 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


of the world. Not even the resurrection of Christ 
would have saved him from oblivion. But the 
Holy Spirit did not let the world forget. He 
shall “bring to your remembrance all that I 
said unto you”’ (John 14: 26). 

Some have thought that we should talk and 
preach overmuch about the Holy Spirit. Now 
it is true that this subject has been neglected by 
many. It is true now of some, as it was of the 
few disciples in Ephesus, they do not know so 
much as whether there be a Holy Spirit. (Cf. 
Acts 19: 2.) But we should remember that the 
Holy Spirit did not come to glorify himself, but 
Christ, and that when Christ is proclaimed and 
honored the Holy Spirit is pleased. When Peter 
preached to Cornelius and his friends, he told 
them the story of Jesus and said nothing about 
the Holy Spirit. That was exactly what the 
Holy Spirit wanted him to do, and he came upon 
that congregation in demonstration of the truth 
of Peter’s sermon. So will he ever give his wit- 
ness to the message that honors Jesus. Jesus said 
he did not glorify himself, but the Father. (John 
8:50.) So the Holy Spirit does not glorify 
himself, but the Son. 

There is a universal reverence for the name of 
Jesus. Why? There is a “holy hush” as we 
partake of the Lord’s Supper. Why? I believe 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 49 


it is because the Holy Spirit convicts human 
hearts of Christ’s holiness. There is a strange 
power in the gospel of Christ to regenerate and 
save. Why? It is because the gospel being the. 
truth, the Spirit of truth makes it effectual. 
There is a mighty and mysterious power in the 
word of God. Why? Because the word of God, 
being the sword of the Spirit, is the Spirit’s 
mighty weapon for execution. But the Spirit 
seeks no prominence for himself. 

However, it is helpful to us and acceptable 
to our Lord that we recognize and speak often 
of the Holy Spirit, as he himself and the apostles 
did. 

The mission of the Holy Spirit in behalf of 
Christians is set forth with considerable complete- 
ness in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth 
chapters of John. In those conversations with 
the disciples Jesus returns again and again to this 
subject. 

In the previous discussion, it was necessary, in 
studying the nature of the Holy Spirit, to say 
much concerning his mission to the church. For 
example, the qualities of his character, as de- 
scribed in the expression “ another paraclete,” can 
be understood only in the light of what he did in 
and for the disciples. We need not repeat here 
what was said there. 

D 


50 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


The casual reader of the New Testament can 
observe the great difference there was in the 
disciples before and after the day of Pentecost. 
Where we saw confusion, hesitation, fear, weak- 
ness, we now behold insight, decision, courage, 
strength. They are transformed; they are new 
men. : 

1. The Holy Spirit enlightened them. He 1- 
lumined their minds. 

Three things are necessary for seeing: an ob- 
ject to be seen, an eye with which to see, and an 
atmosphere in which we see. . The third iS as 
necessary as the first and second. One is in a 
gallery and can see nothing. There are beautiful 
statues and paintings all about him, and he has 
two good eyes in his head, but he cannot see any- 
thing in the dark. To have sight we must have 
light. 

One of the things that we should wonder at is 
our unspeakable dulness as to religious truth. 
God has revealed it in abundance, and our minds 
are reasonably bright in other things, but in this 
way, which is the King’s Highway, we move like 
snails. He, who is a genius in the wisdom of the 
world, is often a dullard in the wisdom of God. 
That he has no interest in this, “ the queen of the 
sciences,” is proof of the proposition. He is a 
goat in a gallery of fine arts. It would rather 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 51 


deal with the garbage-can. Paul says that the 
natural man does not know spiritual things and 
cannot know them except by the Spirit. (Cf. 
1 Cor. 2: 10-16.) The gospel is as a sealed 
book, as a hidden spring, to the Jews who have 
Hot the spirit. (Cf. 2 Cor '3:\ 12-18. ) 

But Christians too are often slow of apprehen- 
sion. (Cf. Luke 24: 25.) Jesus told his dis- 
ciples many things that they did not at the time 
understand. They needed special help. They 
needed light within. (Cf. Luke 24: 27, 45.) 
“In thy light shall we see light’ (Ps. 36: 9). 
The Holy Spirit is this light, for he is the “ Spirit 
Or tiths) (fohnii4? 2.07516, wi 3)» 

2. The Holy Spirit gives to the believer assur- 
ance. That is, the Holy Spirit enables him to 
know that he is a Christian. | 

To know that I am a child of God and shall 
not come into condemnation, that I have forgive- 
ness of all sins, past, present, and future, that I 
am truly a Christian and am heir to immortality 
and the eternal glories of heaven, that I shall be 
like Christ, this is indeed sublime knowledge. It 
is the source of a joy that is unspeakable. But 
many do not have this joy and inspiration. They 
live in the shadows of doubt, not in the sunshine 
of Christian assurance. They sing in tones of 
dolefulness : 


52 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


‘Tis a point I long to know, 

Oft it gives me anxious thought, 
Do I love the Lord or no? 

Am I his or am I not? 


It certainly is a mistake to hold that one is not 
a Christian unless he knows that he is a Chris- 
tian. But why should we live in ignorance and 
the “slough of despond”? There is a way to 
know. In reading the First Epistle of John one 
may see how the apostle affirms repeatedly that 
believers may know that they are saved. It is not 
a matter of belicving only; it is a fact that we 
may also know. (Cf. 1 John 2 : 3, 13, 14, 20, 29; 
BAA LOS TOR Ai 2ye 713) 10515 5) 2, On ts 
19.) Of these sixteen references one says that 
Christian knowledge in general comes by means 
of the anointing-of the Holy One (1 John 2: 
20), which language seems to refer to the Holy 
Spirit; one says that the fact that we have the 
Spirit is proof that we abide in God (1 John 
4 : 13); and one says that the believer has the 
“ witness within him” (1 John 5 : 10), namely, 
that Jesus is the Son of God. The context shows 
quite certainly that this “ within”? testimony 1s 
that of the Holy Spirit. (Cf. 1 John 5 : 7, 8.) 

Paul is as positive and explicit, if not so pene- 
trating, as John. He says that the “ Spirit him- 
self beareth witness with our spirit that we are 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 53 


children of God” (Rom. 8: 16). Three times 
Paul speaks of the “earnest of the Spirit” 
2sCor © 2215-255 Ephe 1 res re ae igs 
word “earnest ’’ means proof or evidence. We 
have it in the expression “ earnest-money,” that 
is, first money paid down on a bargain to secure 
it and as evidence that the rest will be paid. In 
the first passage Paul thinks of his having the 
Holy Spirit as God’s proof that he is in Christ. 
It is conclusive evidence to him and should be 
to the Corinthians. In giving to him the Holy 
Spirit God established the fact, and “set his 
seal ’’ to it, underwrote it, subscribed his name to 
it, that Paul is in Christ. In the second passage 
Paul says that the Holy Spirit is proof of our 
immortality. In the third passage Paul regards 
the Holy Spirit as a proof of both present sal- 
vation and our future inheritance and glory. 

In using the word proof, or evidence, as desig- 
nating the knowledge which the Holy Spirit 
gives, there is danger that we think of a kind of 
knowledge that is inferior to or that falls below 
certainty. What one knows by proof is not the 
most certain knowledge. With reference to some 
of the passages cited, as those in which the Holy 
Spirit gives us assurance of what is yet future, it 
is clear that the words are properly used. But in 
other passages, for example, as Romans 8: 16 


54 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


and 1 John 2: 20; 5:: Io, the thought is not of 
a knowledge that comes by the Holy Spirit as a 
medium, but of immediate knowledge of present 
reality which one has by virtue of the Holy Spirit 
being in him. They deal not with inferential 
knowledge, but conscious knowledge. 

There are three kinds of knowledge. — First, 
knowledge that comes through the senses. For 
example, I know that I am writing with a pencil. 
I see and feel it. Secondly, knowledge that comes 
from reason or the logical faculty. For example, 
I know with a great degree of certainty, but not 
with absolute certainty, that the thermometer will 
reach the zero-point this winter in Kansas City. 
This is inferential, inductive knowledge and 
comes short of absolute certainty, But it may 
reach very close to it. Upon this kind of knowl- 
edge men are sometimes hanged. 

Thirdly, the knowledge of consciousness. For 
example, one’s knowledge of his own identity. I 
know when I wake up in the morning that I am 
the same person I was yesterday. How do I 
know this? Not by looking in the mirror. Not 
by the senses nor by reasoning. I know it by in- 
tuition. JI am conscious of myself. 

It is, I think, a knowledge of this superior kind 
with which we know Christ and the present real- 
ities of his kingdom. We are conscious of him 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 55 


and of them. There is no knowledge more cer- 
tain, We do not prove to ourselves the reality 
of Christ, as we do not prove to ourselves the 
reality of ourselves. We are given to ourselves” 
in experience, and the self arises into conscious- 
ness. Christ too is given to us in experience and 
comes thus into our consciousness. The Holy 
Spirit makes possible this certainty. 

3. The Holy Spirit confirms us in our work 
and faith. His very presence is proof of God's 
approval; that our course of action is a proper one 
and that our faith is the true faith. 

The coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples 
on the day of Pentecost was not only a proof of 
the exaltation of Jesus to the place of power, but 
it was also a demonstration of God’s approval 
of them. When the Holy Spirit came upon the 
Gentiles assembled in the house of Cornelius, 
Peter knew that God had accepted them, and ac- 
cordingly he commanded that they be baptized. 
(Acts 10 : 47, 48.) 

Paul tells the Galatians that their receiving the 
Spirit “by the hearing of faith” is proof that 
salvation by faith, and not by the “ works of the 
Jaw,” is God’s way. (Gal. 3 : 2-5.). The Holy 
Spirit himself also is a gift and comes to us not 
by virtue of any work that we have done. Peter 
said to the inquirers on the day of Pentecost: 


50 A STUDY..OF THE .HOLY: SPIRIT 


“Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you 
in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission 
of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the 
Holy Spirit ” (Acts 2: '38).-“bhe/7 g1it ofthe 
Holy Spirit ” is the Holy Spirit himself, not some 
talent or power which the Holy Spirit bestows. 
Peter’s thought is: Ye shall receive the Holy 
Spirit as a gift. The Holy Spirit does not ap- 
prove false doctrine. Believing an untruth would 
not create a good spirit in a man, but an evil one. 
The Holy Spirit is in those men only who believe 
the truth and act according to it. 

4. The Holy Spirit guided the disciples. 

“ Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is 
come, he shall guide you into all the truth” 
(ohn 1631135) cf) 14 id gi; Matt. (10 37220; 
Mark:13 tay Luke 12: 11252143¢ 12-35). 

Guidance is illumination and more. It is un- 
derstanding or knowledge plus something. It is 
practical wisdom. The Holy Spirit aids and in- 
duces to useful activities. Nothing short of re- 
sults and efficiency will satisfy the Spirit. In- 
tellectual enjoyment, mystical meditation, ecstatic 
exhilaration, transfiguration thrills, and other 
such experiences, that easily degenerate into 
selfishness and worthlessness, have small place in 
the spiritual man. The Spirit is more concerned 
with what we do than with how we feel. 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 57 


Accordingly we read that the Spirit sent Philip. 
to speak to the eunuch (Acts 8 : 29); that he 
directed the church at Antioch to send forth | 
Paul and Barnabas on a missionary enterprise 
(Acts 13: 2); that he withheld Paul from preach- 
ing in a certain region (Acts 16: 7); that he 
directed Paul to go to Jerusalem where persecu- 
tions awaited him (Acts 20 : 22); that he guided 
the apostles, elders, and church at Jerusalem in 
making a decision on an important matter (Acts 
15 : 22,28) ;that Jesus was subject to the leader- 
ship of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 4: 1). 

The effect of the Holy Spirit upon the minds 
of the apostles is specified. ‘“‘ He shall teach you 
all things, and bring to your remembrance all that 
I said unto you” (John 14: 26). “He shall 
declare unto you the things that are to come”’ 
(John 16: 13). In these statements of Jesus 
it is clearly and positively affirmed that the Holy 
Spirit would increase to the utmost the apostles’ 
power of memory with regard to what he had 
said to them and would give to them more than 
natural insight into the future. And here we 
have not only the basis for the doctrine of the 
inspiration of the apostles, but also an explana- 
tion of its character. The inspiration of the apos- 
tles was not only a quickened consciousness of 
present realities, but also an increased power to 


58 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


recall the past and to lay hold of the future. We 
can trust them absolutely to give us a true picture 
of Jesus and to give revelations, predictions, and 
teachings with regard to the future. The sup- 
position that the memory of the apostles was sub- 
ject to limitations and errors, as a merely natu- 
ral memory is, and that, therefore, their account 
of what Jesus said and did is not wholly reliable, 
is excluded. The supposition that they were re- 
ligious geniuses and were, by virtue of superior 
natural endowments, able to discern the profound 
needs of human souls for ages to come, becoming 
thereby revealers or interpreters of religious 
truth, as Shakespeare was of human nature, is 
likewise excluded. Jesus said that what they 
were to receive, not what they already possessed, 
would give them this ability. Though this power 
may work within them, it is a power that comes 
from without them and is neither part nor quality 
of them. Paul and Peter have this conception of 
the inspiration of the writers of the Old Testa- 
ment. (Cf. 2 Tim. 3 : 16 and 2 Peter 1: 21.) 
It would seem that with the prophets and apos- 
tles the inspiration of oral utterances was of a 
like kind with the inspiration of written utter- 
ances, (Cf, 1 Cor..14 : 37; 2\Peter 3": 16.) 
While we cannot now lay claim to such a de- 
gree of inspiration or such a distinct guidance of 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 59 


the Holy Spirit as the apostles and some other 
early disciples were favored with, we, neverthe- 
less, have to a less degree his gracious guidance. | 
“ As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these 
are the sons of God”’ (Rom. 8 : 14). 

A traveler needs three things: eyes, a road, and 
light. He must have them all if he finds his way. 
If we find the path of duty, we must also have 
three things: conscience, the word of God, and 
the Holy Spirit. 

Charles Kingsley, at twenty-one years of age, 
in unrest of soul, wrote to a Christian friend: 


You believe that you have a sustaining Hand to 
guide you along that path, an Invisible Protection, and 
an unerring Guide. I, alas! have no stay for my weary 
steps, but that same abused and stupefied reason which 
has stumbled, and wandered, and betrayed me a thou- 
sand times ere now, and is every moment ready to 
faint and to give up the unequal struggle. | 


He realized that to find the right way one must 
have something more than human _ wisdom. 
Harry Emerson Fosdick makes this comment: * 


If Kingsley had framed his final philosophy then, what 
a loss to the world, of an inspiring life transfigured by 
Christian faith! He cried after discernment, lifted up 


2% Meaning of Faith,” p. 30. 


60 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


his voice for understanding, and he found the knowl- 
edge of God. 


Few men of the last generation had as much 
spiritual influence and did as much good as 
George Mueller, of England. How he built up 
a great orphanage and fed and clothed thousands 
of helpless children was the marvel and admira- 
tion of his day. He tells us how he found the 
will of God. You will notice that he gives 
prominence to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
He says: 


I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such 
a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a 
given matter. 

Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is just here. 
Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our 
hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may 
be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a 
little way to the knowledge of what his will is. 

Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling 
or simple impression. If I do so, I make myself liable 
to great delusions. 

I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in 
connection with, the Word of God. 

The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I 
look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself 
open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides 
us at all, he will do it according to the Scriptures and 
never contrary to them. 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 6t 


Next I take into account providential circumstances. 
These often plainly indicate God’s will in connection 
with his Word and Spirit. 

I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me aright. - 

Thus through prayer to God, the study of the Word, 
and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment accord- 
ing to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my 
mind is thus at peace and continues so after two or 
three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial 
matters, and in transactions involving most important 
issues, I have found this method always effective. 


From the very nature of the case no mechan- 
ical rule can be given for conduct. To attempt to 
announce a general rule that will be applicable 
to all particular and specific cases and be the 
solution of them, is to attempt the impossible. 
It is in fact a contradiction in thought. It would 
turn a moral agent into an automaton. Thomas 
wanted to know the way and Jesus said, “I am 
the way” (John 14: 6). He could not say 
more. Christian character is developed and re- 
vealed in our application of the principles of the 
life of Christ to the numerous and complex prob- 
lems of our life. Every healthy system digests 
and assimilates food for itself. Discovering the 
mind of Christ and working out the will of Christ 
in the plan and details of my life is my job. 
Mechanical rules cannot help me. But the ‘law 
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” can and 


62 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


does help me. (Rom. 8: 2.) Let me be careful 
to discern the “mind of the Spirit” (Rom. 
Sarit dy fy 

To all that had been said on this subject of the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit this limitation should 
be added. The Holy Spirit does not lead us con- 
trary to the Word, as was noted in the quotation 
from Mr. Mueller. It is an evil spirit that ignores 
and refuses to listen to the Word. He who re- 
jects the Word of God on any subject, on which 
it speaks, is, so far as he does it, led by his 
own wilful, if not wicked, spirit, however great a 
show of piety he may display. The “inner 
light’ must harmonize with and reflect the 
“outer light’ of God’s inspired Word; other- 
wise it is not light, but darkness. The Quakers 
stand forth as a fine object-lesson and a warning 
to us. They rejected the plain commands of 
Holy Writ, being guided, as they supposed, by 
an inner light, and God has taken away their 
candlestick. Not a few members of evangelical 
churches professing the same humility and sanc- 
tity are walking in the same way of spiritual 
pride and impotency. (Cf. Isa. 8 : 20.) 

5. The Holy Spirit gave power to the disciples. 

Jesus, referring to the day of Pentecost, said 
to his disciples as he was about to depart from 
them, “ Ye shall receive power, when the Holy 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 63 


piri 1s.) come “upon, you.) .) CActs®1ic.8) 
“Greater works than these shall he do; because 
I go unto the Father” (John 14: 12). “I will 
not leave you orphans” (John 14: 18). 

Paul said to Timothy: “God gave us not a 
spirit of fearfulness; but of power” (2 Tim. 
1 Aa fy ) 

Christians are not to be weak and beggarly. 
They are not to fawn and cringe and court favor. 
They have a message that grips the mind and 
heart, a message of love, of truth, and of judg- 
ment. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is also 
the»baptism of fire. (Cf. Matt. 3: 11.) 

But we will speak of this subject especially and 
at length later. 

6. The Holy Spirit makes intercession for 
Christians. 

Paul says: “ And in like manner the Spirit also 
helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to 
pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh 
intercession for us with groanings which cannot 
be uttered ; and he that searcheth the hearts know- 
eth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he 
maketh intercession for the saints according to 
the will of God”’ (Rom. 8 : 26, 27). 

This is a remarkable passage. The Holy Spirit 
does a work for us on earth and also before the 
throne. He is, in this, like Jesus who was our 


64 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


advocate on earth, but is now our ‘ Advocate 
with the Father’ (John 2: 1; cf. Heb. 7 : 25). 
Their work for the saints is complete. It is both 
here and there. It is in us and also for us. 

This intercession of the Spirit for Christians 
in the Holy of Holies should be consciously real- 
ized by them as sufficient to meet every need. If 
there is a conscious need in enlightened and spir- 
itual Christians for a perfect intercession as well 
as for a perfect salvation, and it is evident that 
there is, they have it in the person of the Holy 
Spirit and not in the person of the “ Virgin fi 
Mary. 

We have found that the Holy Spirit does these 
six things for us: he enlightens the mind, he 
gives us assurance of salvation, he confirms us in 
the true faith and in a good course, he guides, 
he endues us with power, he makes intercession 
for us, interpreting our prayers and making them 
effectual. 


IV 


Pi EMISSION, OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
TO THE WORLD 


In evil long I took delight, 
Unawed by shame or fear, 

Till a new object struck my sight, 
And stopped my mad career. 


I saw One hanging on a tree, 
In agonies and blood; 

He fixed his languid eyes on me, 
As near the cross I stood. 


O never, till my latest breath, 
Shall I forget that look! 

It seemed to charge me with his death, 
Though not a word he spoke. 


A second look he gave, which said, 
“TJ freely all forgive; 

This blood is for thy ransom paid; 
T died that thou mayst live.” 


Thus, while his death my sin displays 
Tn all its blackest hue, 

Such is the mystery of grace, 
It seals my pardon too. 


TEE IMISSION OF THE*HOLY SPIRIF 
LOVTHE WORLD 


HE world is not aware of the Holy Spirit. 

It does not know him nor of him. ‘ Whom 
the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him 
not, neither knoweth him” (John 14: 17.) But 
he has a mission to the world, nevertheless. 
Though men that are unsaved do not know him 
and do not want to know him, and may never be 
saved, they are, notwithstanding, the objects of 
his grace. 

In this the Holy Spirit is like the Son. “ He 
was in the world, and the world was made 
through him, and the world knew him not” 
(John 1: 10). “In him was life; and the life 
was the light of men” (John 1 : 4), and yet they 
were not aware of it. God’s grace is greater than 
our knowledge or gratitude. 

But we should not conclude that the Holy 
Spirit is “ diffused,” so to speak, throughout the 
world, and that he does a work in the heart of 
every person such as we are to describe. It seems 
proper to say with Dr. A. J. Gordon and others 
that the Holy Spirit’s mission to the world is 
(67 


68 A STUDY OF ‘THE HOLY SPIRIT 


accomplished only in connection with the truth 
of the gospel and never without it. The Holy 
Spirit dwells in believers, but not in the world. 
(Chr Cor:-377 16.) He, does~not dwell, in un- 
believers. Accordingly what he does for them 
is done from without; that is, by means of the 
truth or the word of God. Let us recall that 
with Jesus a favorite designation of the Holy 
Spirit is the “ Spirit of truth” (John 14: 17; 
16: 26; 16: 13), and that he identifiesGod's 
word with truth. (John 17: 17.) The word of 
God is the “ sword of the Spirit’ or the weapon 
which the Spirit wields. (Cf. Eph. 6 : 17.) 

The ministry of the Spirit to unbelievers is to 
make the word of God effective in them to the 
extent of causing them to know that it is the 
word of God. This ministry is summed up in 
one word, namely, conviction. 

“And he, when he is come, will convict the 
world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and 
of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on 
me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, 
and ye behold me no more; of judgment, because 
the prince of this world hath been judged” (John 
16: 8-11). | 

This is the one and only passage in the Bible 
that definitely states and explains the effect of the 
Holy Spirit upon unbelievers as such, 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 69 


The conviction is threefold. Its elements are 
sin, righteousness, and judgment. 

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. 

Two facts in regard to the question of sin 
stand out prominently. The first is that it is 
fundamental in the Christian conception of fallen 
human nature. The second is that it gives value 
to the doctrine of redemption. The worth of 
salvation is determined by the consideration of 
what one is saved from. If sin is a small matter, 
salvation is a small matter. When we minimize 
sin we minimize Christ. 

Now, if one will compare carefully the Bible 
view of sin and the world’s view of it, one will 
be greatly impressed. Buddha, Socrates, and 
Plotinus are three good representatives of the 
world’s thought and teaching on the subject. 
There is in men generally the feeling that there 
is something wrong with them. But when this 
feeling attempts to give an account of itself, it 
falls far below the Christian conception of sin. 

Buddha realizes that there is something wrong 
with human nature. But the wrong is a part of 
human nature. It is not something that has over- 
taken man. It is something that belongs to him. 
To be rid of it he must be rid of himself. Buddha 
did not teach self-denial, but self-annihilation. 
Buddha was a pantheist, and consequently he 


70 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


knew nothing of sin as the violation of the law 
of a personal and holy God. Man, like an ant, 
finds himself at the base of the mountain, and 
there is nothing for him to do, if he would be at 
the top, but to climb. Sin is not the word for 
Buddha, but pain or sorrow, and desire is the 
cause of sorrow. The dying down of desire 
brings surcease from sorrow. By this process 
one reaches Nirvana, the Buddhist’s heaven. 
There is here no true teaching concerning sin and 
salvation. It is the sad groping in the darkness 
of a great and earnest soul. 

Socrates’ view is light and superficial. Sin is 
a mistake. It results from ignorance. Its cure 
is knowledge. The notion that sin is lawlessness, 
that it is rebellion, that it is the assertion of self 
against the holy will of God, and that it has guilt, 
which must be atoned for, is not found in 
Socrates. If Socrates knew of Moses, he did not 
learn anything from him. Neither Buddha nor 
Socrates conceives of sin as so heinous to God 
and so “ deepdyed ” in men that their only hope 
with regard to it is his forgiveness and regenerat- 
ing grace. 

The theory of Plotinus, the founder of Neo- 
Platonism, is antichristian. To God, or the first 
being of all, there is no sin. Because there can 
be nothing contrary to his being. He is himself 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Jt 


all reality. Therefore, sin has no real existence. 
It is merely the absence of reality. It is to reality 
as darkness is to light. It is the lack of perfec- 
tion. It is a defect or negation, but nothing posi- 
tive. It is related to perfection as childhood is to 
manhood. There is nothing that offends God or 
goes contrary to his will or thought. If there 
be that which appears to be offensive to God, it is 
because of our imperfect way of viewing things. 
God himself knows no such thing as sin. To him 
all is harmonious, beautiful, and good. What we 
call sin is only the lack of a quality in us which 
we are yet to possess. Plotinus was, as will have 
appeared, a pantheist. 

This theory was developed to the summit of 
perfection by Spinoza, the greatest of all pan- 
theists and infidels, and has been adopted bodily 
by the founder of Christian Science, also pan- 
theist and infidel. It serves very well a certain 
kind of evolution. But it is antibiblical, anti- 
christian, and antimoral. It is altogether pagan. 
It is impossible with men and women who think 
of God as a heavenly Father, as a person with 
ethical qualities, reason, purpose, a sense of right 
and wrong, mercy and love. 

Buddha thinks the trouble with human nature 
is pain; Socrates thinks it is ignorance; and Plo- 
tinus and his imitators think it is imperfection, 


72 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


They all, and especially Socrates and Plotinus, 
prescribe knowledge as a panacea for the world’s 
ills. But these great men on this subject are like 
“ children crying in the night’’; their language 
lacks articulation. They feel but do not under- 
stand. It is not possible to know what sin is 
without a revelation of what God is. 

But the voice of the Bible is clear and certain. 
It knows what sin is and how it originated. It 
traces its history. It recites vivid tragedies of it. 
Sin is wickedness; it is iniquity; it is missing the 
mark; it is overreaching; it is transgression ; it 1s 
in the heart as well as in the head; it is something 
black, unclean, deformed, and ugly; God cannot 
look upon it. It is a deadly thing; it is a poison 
and a curse; death camps on the trail of sin. The 
sinner is guilty; he carries the weight of his sin 
upon him; his sin finds him out. Sin is what it 
is because God is what he is, terrible in holiness, 
from whom none can hide, whose righteous 
wrath strikes like a thunderbolt in the day of 
judgment and consumes like a furnace in the day 
of vengeance. Sin is the cause of all our woe. 
Sin must be punished. He who has its mark 
upon him is exiled from the presence of God, 
and if he be unforgiven is doomed to everlasting 
shame and contempt. Sin creates hell. Sin has 
caught every one in its evil net; not one can 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO 


escape. Only the mercy of God can deliver the 
soul. 

The mission of the law was to educate a nation 
and the world on the subject of sin, to cause them 
to know what it is and how bad it is. Paul says, 
“T had not known sin, except through the law ”’ 
(Rom. 7: 7). Again he says that the law was 
given “ that through the commandment sin might 
become exceeding sinful’? (Rom. 7 : 13). And 
once more: “ The law came in beside, that the 
trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, 
grace did abound more exceedingly’ (Rom. 5 : 
20). Paul does not mean, as some suppose, that 
in any place where sin is rampant grace is abun- 
dant. He is thinking of it abounding subjec- 
tively, not objectively. He means just this: that 
to the Jews, who were more conscious of sin, 
God showed more favor. 

We have Paul for our authority that the con- 
tribution of the Jewish nation to the civilization 
of the world is a quickened moral consciousness. 
The Romans gave to the world jurisprudence; the 
Greeks, esthetics; the Jews, ethics. 

But when we come to Christ we get a better 
knowledge of sin. We cannot explain him apart 
from the fact of sin. Sin brought him into the 
world; sin nailed him to the cross. Sin caused 
the cry of agony, ‘“ My God, my God, why hast 


74 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


thou forsaken me?” Calvary more than Sinai 
teaches us the nature of sin. There is only one 
thing that outruns and overreaches and is 
stronger than sin, and that is the love of God. 

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit “ will convict 
the world in respect of sin.’ He means that from 
Pentecost on men will have a more vivid realiza- 
tion of sin; and on the day of Pentecost we have 
a good illustration of what he meant. On that 
day men, who had been for fifty days guilty of 
the murder of the Son of God and unmoved and 
unashamed, were brought suddenly under deep 
conviction of their crime. The sermon of Peter 
played its part, to be sure; but the Holy Spirit 
drove the “ two-edged sword ” in, piercing to the 
conscience. 

Another good illustration is Paul’s conscious- 
ness of sin. In no Bible character is it so real 
and vivid. David in none of his penitential 
psalms equals Paul. Newman Smyth thus draws 
the contrast between them: * 3 


Very interesting, and instructive also, as distinguish- 
ing these eras in the growth of conscience, is the com- 
parison which we may make without drawing at all 
upon our imagination, between the same (seventh) 
chapter of Romans and the Fifty-first Psalm. The 
psalm is like a child’s cry of contrition in its mother’s 


1“ Christian Ethics,” p. 1666, 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 75 


Jap: “ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy 
lovingkindness; according to the multitude of thy ten- 
der mercies blot out my transgressions.” But the chap- 
ter of Romans is the cry of a man’s soul from out the 
depths: “O wretched man that I am! who shall de- 
liver me out of the body of this death?’ The former 
is a youth’s quick contrition, and easily reviving hope: 
“Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones 
which thou hast broken may rejoice.” The latter is a 
man’s soberer recognition of his moral inability, and 
his profounder moral despair: “ For I know that in me, 
that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will 
is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.” 
The former is quick to own the human sinfulness from 
which the transgression which is confessed had sprung: 
“ Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my 
mother conceive me.” In the latter the dark fact of 
Original sin falls into the background, and the sense of 
personal guilt pervades with its deep gloom the moral 
consciousness: “ But I am carnal, sold under sin.” The 
moral law as the will of God is acknowledged in the 
psalm: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and 
done that which is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest 
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou 
judgest.” In the confession of sin in Romans the law, 
is recognized as in itself something holy, and the com- 
mandment good. The psalm is the weeping of a peni- 
tent child who has done a wrong act, and is distressed 
by the shame of it. The confession of sin in Romans is 
the voice of a man who has learned how helpless and 
worthless he is before the pure righteousness of God, 
and who knows that he must perish as one bound to 
death unless he can become upright and stand as a just 


76 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


soul among the just in the presence of the God of 
righteousness. We turn to the penitential psalm when 
we would mourn over particular sins; we read that 
profounder chapter of St. Paul’s experience when we 
would fathom our deepest personal consciousness of the 
human sinfulness from which we would be delivered 
as from a body of death. 


Now this profounder knowledge of sin in Paul 
corresponds to his profounder knowledge of the 
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works conviction 
of sin, because the Holy Spirit is holy. In his 
white light dark shadows, that were before un- 
known, are seen and felt. 

Jesus explains: “ Of sin, because they believe 
not on me.” 

Since Jesus saw a relation between sin and un- 
belief in himself we ought to try earnestly to 
see it. 

Two considerations help us to understand his 
statement. First, Jesus is the criterion of char- 
acter. It is not the law, but one who is the ful- 
filment and exemplification, in his own person, of 
the law, and greater than the law, who has now 
become the law of life for us. As Jesus is the 
author of salvation and the door into the king- 
dom, so is he also the standard by which charac- 
ter and conduct, virtue and vice are to be deter- 
mined. 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Fk 


The second consideration is that one’s attitude 
to Jesus reveals character. It is a matter of small 
moment to one’s character whether he is for or 
against George Washington or Frederick the 
Great of Prussia. It concerns his political views 
only, but saints and sinners are arrayed on both 
sides. But Jesus is the dividing-line between 
saints and sinners. He attracts the pure; he re- 
pels the vicious. He is a savor of life unto life 
to the one, a savor of death unto death to the 
ethers (Cis 2) Cor. 2327163) 

The word that Jesus uses for the attitude which 
he condemns is “ believe not.” We are of course 
not to give any refined technical meaning to this 
word in this connection. It means simply being 
for Jesus or against him, committing oneself to 
him or holding aloof. The one is with God 
righteousness, the other sin. Sometimes one 
hears the subject of faith in Christ spoken of as 
if it were a “ voluntary willing,’ an isolated men- 
tal choice unrelated to moral worth; but this is 
not true. To reject Christ is to confirm oneself 
in badness. To say, “I expect to be a Christian 
some time, but not now,” is like saying, “ I expect 
to be honest some time, but not now.’’ When 
therefore one does not believe in Christ he not 
only makes God a liar, as John in his epistle says 
(1 John 5; 10), but he also shows himself to 


78 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


be in a profound sense dishonorable. Unbelief 
is a root-sin. It was the initial element in the 
first sin, when the devil was trusted and God was 
distrusted, and has been the initial element in 
every succeeding sin. Since to believe on Christ/ 
is the work of God (John 6: 29), so, on the! 
other hand, not to believe on him is the work of | 
the evil one. 

In being an index of character faith is like 
love. What one loves indicates what he is. Jesus 
said: “And this is the judgment, that light is 
come into the world, and men loved the darkness 
rather than the light; for their works were evil ”’ 
~ (John 3: 19). Paul said, “If any man loveth 
not the Lord, let him be anathema”’ (1 Cor. 16 : 
22). If one loves not what is most lovely, he 
himself is unlovely. But an entire absence of 
faith in Jesus Christ is a still stronger proof of 
degeneracy. Jesus says, “‘ He that believeth not 
hath been judged already, because he hath not 
believed on the name of the only begotten Son 
of God” (John 3: 18). God’s judgments are 
not arbitrary. He that does not believe is con- 
demned, because he is condemnable. The ques- 
tion of all questions is, What do you think of 
Jesus Christ? Eternal destinies are fixed by it, 
because character of infinite worth or unworth is 
formed by it, 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 79 


Now it is the Holy Spirit that teaches us all 
this. Paul says: ‘I make known unto you, that 
no man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus 
is anathema; and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, — 
bub inthe bloly Spirit’ (0 Cor. 12) 72). pias 
a fact that saints bless and sinners curse by the 
name of Jesus. They know that he is holy. Paul 
credits to the Holy Spirit this result and it is 
involved in the statements of Jesus. 

The Holy Spirit convicts the world “ in respect 
of righteousness.” Jesus adds in explanation, 
“ Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, 
and ye behold me no more.” 

In the former statement, with which we have 
been dealing, the sim spoken of is the sin of the 
world. Here the righteousness spoken of is the 
righteousness of Christ. The Holy Spirit con- 
victs the world of its sin and of Christ’s right- 
eousness. Their great sin arises from their not 
believing in Christ the “Holy and Righteous 
One,” and they are, because of this fact, brought 
under conviction by the Holy Spirit. It was 
necessary, in discussing the sin of the world, to 
speak of the character of Christ—for they natu- 
rally stand in contrast and are evidently so placed 
by Jesus in the clause which we are studying— 
and we need not here repeat what has been said 
already. 


80 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


We come to the two explanatory clauses, “ Be- 
cause I go to the Father, and ye behold me no 
more.” 

The second of these clauses is, it seems, only 
a continuation and completer expression of the 
thought of the first. It is the negative member 
of a parallelism, a form of expression frequently 
used by Jesus as reported by John. (Cf. John 
2 802s Bl bese O18 517: tol On one es tO 28. ) 

We limit our attention therefore to the first 
clause, “ Because I go to the Father.” The 
thought is really a simple one. It is this: The 
resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the Father 
proves that he is righteous, that he is what he 
claimed to be, the Holy One of God, the Son of 
God. The disciples became vividly conscious of 
this truth on the day of Pentecost and from that 
time on proclaimed it. Peter proclaimed it on 
that day in his sermon and again and again. (Acts 
25 41-8033) 2 15-21; 4%) 10.) his: was) the 
great fact that converted Saul of Tarsus. The 
voice said, “ I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ” 
(Acts 9: 5; cf. 22: 8). Notice the language. 
It is not “I am Christ,’ but “I am Jesus.” It 
is the man, Jesus of Nazareth, that has been ex- 
alted to the right hand of God. This was enough 
for the arch-persecutor. Before this stupendous 
fact he surrendered all. Then it became his great 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 81 


theme. (Acts 13 : 30, 34; 17 : 31; 26: 8; Rom. 
Hi: 421 Cor. 15:45) 7 As'to these passages.con- 
sider that the thought of the resurrection car- 
ries with it, in Paul’s mind, the thought of the 
ascension. 

The fact is that the world in part has been and 
is being convinced of this truth. All the saved 
are convinced of it and many more who do not 
act upon their conviction. For this result we 
are indebted to the potent agency of the Holy 
Spirit. Paul calls it a mystery: “ Without con- 
troversy great is the mystery of godliness ; 


He who was manifest in the flesh, 
Justified in the spirit, 

Seen of angels, 

Preached among the nations, 

Believed on in the world, 

Received up in glory” (1 Tim. 3: 16). 


The Holy Spirit convicts the world “in re- 
spect of judgment”; “ of judgment, because the 
prince of this world hath been judged.” 

In the light of what has been said, if we have 
spoken correctly, this part of the sentence is not 
difficult. | 

The “prince of this world” is Satan. (Cf. 
fobnse 12 23% and '14.2°30.). >: Hath © beer 

F 


82 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


judged ” refers to the victory that Christ gained 
over Satan. Christ conquered the devil both in 
his life and in his death. He routed him in the 
great temptation. (Matt. 4: 11.) He beat him 
and disrupted his kingdom when his disciples cast 
out demons. (Cf. Matt. 12 : 29; Luke 10 : 18.) 
The passage in Luke does not refer to the origin 
of Satan, as a fallen angel, as some suppose, but 
to his overthrow in the world, as the context 
shows. 

But “hath been judged” refers especially, it 
seems, to the victory of Christ over Satan gained 
in his death on the cross. (Cf. John 12: BI) 
The perfect tense is used because Jesus views the 
event as an accomplished fact. The world was 
passing judgment on Jesus, but it also was being 
judged by the judgment it was meeting out. And 
Satan was being defeated by the crucifixion. 
Satan did not want Christ to go to the cross. 
When Peter would have prevented it, the Saviour 
called him Satan, for he was then speaking for 
Satan, who desired rather that Jesus fall down 
and worship him. (Matt. 16: 23; Chi) 4a Op) 
And when he was on the cross those who were 
Satanic would have been glad to have him come 
down without finishing his sacrifice. (Matt. 27 : 
42.) When Jesus said, “ It is finished,” and died 
the victory over Satan’s power, the last enemy, 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 83 


death, was accomplished. By dying he conquered 
death. His resurrection was the demonstration 
of it. | 

The cross conquers the world, the flesh, and the 
devil. 

In the cross Satan is revealed. His works and 
the world of which he is the prince are brought 
to light. Paul says that by the cross of Christ 
the world is crucified to him. (Gal. 6: 14.) 

Now, if the prince of the world is condemned, 
all that belong to his princedom are condemned 
also; and the Holy Spirit works this truth into 
their conscience. Sinful men will not escape the 
judgment of God; and more, where the gospel is 
preached, they will not escape the foreboding of 
their doom. 

In conclusion, we notice that in all the work of 
the Holy Spirit Christ is honored. As the Son 
did not come into the world to glorify himself 
but the Father, so the Holy Spirit came not to 
glorify himself but the Son. Christ hung upon 
the cross; the Holy Spirit “hides behind the 
cross.” 

Julius Charles Hare well says: 


The Comforter in every part of his threefold work 
glorifies Christ. In convincing of sin he convinces us 
of the sin of not believing on Christ. In convincing us 
of righteousness, he convinces us of the righteousness 


84 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


of Christ, of that righteousness which was made mani- 
fest in Christ going to the Father, and which he re- 
ceived to bestow on all such as should believe on him. 
And lastly, in convincing of judgment, he convinces us 
that the prince of the world was judged in the life and 
by the death of Christ. Thus, throughout, Christ is 
glorified; and that which the Comforter shows to us 
relates in all its parts to the life and work of the in- 
carnate Son of God. 


We may say the same of the work of the Holy 
Spirit in the lives of Christians. When he en- 
lightens, enlarges, strengthens, teaches, guides, in- 
spires, and empowers them, it is that Christ may 
be glorified. Dr. A. J. Gordon beautifully says: - 


When the sun retires beyond the horizon at night, 
the world, our hemisphere, sees him no more; yet the 
moon sees him, and all night long catches his light and 
throws it down upon us. So the world sees not Christ 
in the gracious provisions of redemption which he holds 
for us in heaven, but through the illumination of the 
Comforter the church sees him, . . and communicates 
what it sees to the world. 


Since this is the mind of the Spirit it should 
be our mind also. If we have it we have the 
Spirit. It is the best proof that we have the 
Spirit. 


2“ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 198. 


THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 85 


Bismarck’s one ambition was to Prussianize 
Germany. ‘“ You can hang me,” he said, “so 
long as the rope you do it with binds Germany 
to the Prussian throne.’’ A noble devotion that 
was to an ignoble cause. To Christianize Ger- 
many was Luther’s devotion to a noble cause. 
And the name of Luther will be sung while the 
name of Bismarck will rot. 

The Holy Spirit wants us to do what he him- 
self is doing, namely, so to preach, teach, and 
exemplify Christ to unbelieving men that they 
will come to know his righteousness, their sinful- 
ness, and the righteous judgment of God that 
now rests upon them and that will in time be 
executed upon them vividly before the whole 
universe. 


In the cross of Christ I glory, 
Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time; 

All the light of sacred story 
Gathers round its head sublime. 


. 
Eee 
i VON 


V, 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 


Stay, thou insulted Spirit, stay, 

Though I have done thee such despite; 
Cast not a sinner quite away, 

Nor take thine everlasting flight. 


Though I have most unfaithful been 
Of all who e’er thy grace received, 
Ten thousand times thy goodness seen, 
Ten thousand times thy goodness grieved ; 


Yet, O, the chief of sinners spare, 
In honor of my great High Priest; 

Nor, in thy righteous anger, swear 
I shall not see thy people’s rest. 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 


USE the plural, sims, with design. I want to 
call attention to the fact that there are many 
sins against the Holy Spirit and not one only. 
We speak first of what is often called “ the sin 
against the Holy Spirit.” 
This is not the Bible expression for it. It is 
there called “ the blasphemy against the Spint.” 
Let us have the account clearly in mind. It is 
in Matthew, Mark, and Luke: 


MattTHEw 12: 22-37 


“Then was brought unto him one possessed with a 
demon, blind and dumb; and he healed him, insomuch 
that the dumb man spake and saw. And all the multi- 
tudes were amazed, and said, Can this be the son of 
David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, 
This man doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub 
the prince of the demons. And knowing their thoughts 
he said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself 
is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided 
against itself shall not stand: and if Satan casteth out 
Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his 
kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out 
demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? there- 
fore shall they be your judges. But if I by the Spirit of 

89 


go A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come 
upon you. Or how can one enter into the house of the 
strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the 
strong man? and then he will spoil his house. He that 
is not with me is against me; and he that gathered not 
with me scattereth. Therefore I say unto you, Every 
sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the 
blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 
And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of 
man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall 
speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven 
him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come. 
Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make 
the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is 
known by its fruit. Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, 
being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance 
of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out 
of his good treasure bringeth forth good things; and 
the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth 
evil things. And I say unto you, that every idle word 
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in 
the day of jugment. For by thy words thou shalt be 
justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” 


Mark 3: 22-30 


“And the scribes that came down from Jerusalem 
said, He hath Beelzebub, and, By the prince of the 
demons casteth he out the demons. And he called 
them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How 
can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be 
divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And 
‘fa house be divided against itself that house will not 
be able to stand, And if Satan hath risen up against 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT oi 


himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but hath an 
end. But no one can enter into the house of the strong 
man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong 
man; and then he will spoil his house. Verily I say 
unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons 
of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they 
shall blaspheme: but whosoever shall blaspheme against 
the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty 
of an eternal sin: because they said, He hath an un- 
clean spirit.” 


LuKE 11 : 14-26 


“ And he was casting out a demon that was dumb. 
And it came to pass, when the demon was gone out, 
the dumb man spake; and the multitudes marvelled. 
But some of them said, By Beelzebub the prince of the 
demons casteth he out demons. And others, trying him, 
sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing 
their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided 
against itself is brought to desolation; and a house 
divided against a house falleth. And if Satan also is 
divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? 
because ye say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. 
And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do 
your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your 
judges. But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, 
then is the kingdom of God come upon you. When the 
strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his 
goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall 
come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from 
him his whole armor wherein he trusted, and divideth 
his spoils. He that is not with me is against me; and 
he that gathereth not with me scattereth. The unclean 


92 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


spirit when he is gone out of the man, passeth through 
waterless places, seeking rest; and finding none, he 
saith, I will turn back unto my house whence I came 
out. And when he is come, he findeth it swept and 
garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven 
other spirits more evil than himself; and they enter in 
and dwell there: and the last state of that man be- 
cometh worse than the first.” 


Now it is evident that Jesus attributes to the 
scribes and Pharisees, who accused him of casting 
out demons by “ Beelzebub the prince of the 
demons,” the sin of blasphemy against the Holy 
Spirit. 

In answering their charge Jesus first explains 
that their reasoning is unreasonable. Satan 
would not cast out Satan; or, if he did, his king- 
dom is divided and must come to an end. Then 
he proceeds to denounce them. 

Let us go into the subject carefully and dis- 
cover, if we can, what the nature of this sin 1S. 

1. It is a sin of bad men. 

They are hypocrites. Jesus calls them the 
“offspring of vipers.’ They are “ corrupt.” 
They are “ guilty of an eternal sin,” that “ shall 
not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in that 
which is to come.” Their conscience is seared. 
They are not concerned with what is right, but 
only with what they can “ get away with.” They 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 93 


will go to any length to compass the defeat of 
Jesus. Jesus has done a good miracle. They 
cannot deny the fact, but, nevertheless, they will 
manage to discredit him and the power by which 
he did it. 

2. It is a sin against knowledge. There is the 
quality of deliberation in it. These Pharisees 
are wise in their wickedness. They know their 
duty, but to escape it they will go to the extreme 
of calling white black. To condemn Christ they 
will stultify themselves mentally, morally, and 
spiritually. There is no stopping them. (Cf. 
Matt. 21 2025-27.) 

There is a great difference between the judg- 
ments that will fall upon sins of ignorance and 
upon sins of knowledge. (Cf. Luke 12 : 47, 48.) 

3. It is a sin of speech. 

Blasphemy is evil-speaking. In this case it is 
the most wicked kind of speaking. It is malign- 
ing what is holy, what can be nothing other than 
holy, what is known to be only holy. 

Bad thoughts are bad, but they are worse when 
let loose in words. There is a great difference be- 
tween a bullet in the gun and a bullet fired out. 
There is a great difference between a sword in 
its scabbard and a sword that is being thrust 
in up to the hilt. 

This sin, the greatest of all sins, is a sin ex- 


94 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


pressed in words and getting a measure of its 
character by means of words. Words are of two 
kinds, meaningless and meaningful. If one must 
give an account of the former, much more must 
he of the latter. Notice that Jesus says in this 
connection: “And I say unto you, that every 
idle word that men shall speak, they shall give 
account thereof in the day of judgment. For by 
thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. 12: 
36, 37). 

4. This sin is one sin. It is not many sins com- 
bined, nor 1s it the repetition of a sin. It is not 
any one of a class of sins. It is the only one of 
its kind. 

I do not think that a very common explanation 
of this sin is correct. I givea sample. Dr. James 
Lyall says: 


I, was in the North of Ireland just before I left for 
the colonies, conducting services in one of the Pres- 
byterian churches. On the first Sunday night of the 
mission a tall, fine-looking, elderly man came up to me 
and said, “ Mr. Lyall, I would like to have a talk with 
you.” I told him to come into the vestry. We went 
in, and he began the interview by saying: “I want in 
the first place to tell you who I am. I am an employer 
of labor in this city, and have hundreds of men on my 
pay-list. I am well known and have a measure of in- 
fluence in my town. But it is not that I wanted to talk 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 95 


about, but my spiritual condition.’”” He went on to say 
something like this: “Three years ago I was deeply 
convicted of my need of Jesus Christ. One night I was 
in my room alone with God, an unsaved man. I was © 
conscious of the divine presence as I am of your pres- 
ence now. I knew God was in the room, and I knew 
in my inner consciousness that if I yielded to him 
that night I would be saved. I was just on the thresh- 
old of the kingdom, but I began to count the cost, and 
deliberately got up from my knees and walked out of 
that room, as conscious that I had left the presence of 
God as if I were to leave your presence now. About a 
year later God came to me again; the pleading of the 
Holy Spirit was overwhelming; the conviction of sin 
was appalling, and I felt that God was giving me an- 
other chance, but the devil came and whispered: ‘ Don’t 
make a fool of yourself. You are already a good man, 
and everybody regards you as such: don’t begin to let 
on as if you were not; the people will laugh at you.’ 
I yielded to this subtle temptation of the devil and once 
more resisted the Holy Ghost.. In a moment, when I 
had chosen, I was conscious, just as conscious as I am 
of your presence now, that I had resisted for the last 
time. I went out of God’s presence banished even as 
Cain was banished from the divine presence.” 

Then he added, with a strange look in his eye that 
almost froze my blood: “Mr. Lyall, listen; standing 
before you tonight in this vestry is a lost soul. I be- 
lieve I am as much lost tonight as I will ever be in 
hell, only I have not got there. I have walked the 
streets night after night. I have not slept a whole 
night for months. I would have plunged myself into 
Belfast Loch before this were it not for what lies be- 


96 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


yond.” Then he continued: “I have not told you this 
because I want you to help me. My dear sir, I am 
beyond all human help and divine, too. I want you to 
tell my story where you go, that men and women may 
be warned against the awful sin of resisting the Holy 
Ghost.” He went out from the building and I never 
saw him again. 


Rev. William A. Sunday, while preaching in 
his great revival in Kansas City, explained the 
“unpardonable sin”’ in about the same way. 

Now, resisting the Holy Spirit is a great sin; 
and putting off the day of salvation is a great sin; 
and saying no to God, when one feels that it may 
be one’s last chance, is a great sin. But none of 
these is “‘ blasphemy against the Spirit,” and it is 
this sin, and only this sin, that Jesus says will not 
be forgiven. Neither resisting the Holy Spirit nor 
hardening one’s heart in the day of God’s visita- 
tion, though they be greater sins than we think, 
is speaking wickedly of the Holy Spirit. And we 
have Jesus’ word for it, in this very connection, 
that all such sins and any other sin, except this 
one sin of ‘“ blasphemy against the Spirit,’ may 
be forgiven. Jesus says: ‘“‘ Every sin and blas- 
phemy (wicked-speaking) shall be forgiven unto 
men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall 
not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a 
word against the Son of man, it shall be for- 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT Q7 


given him; but whosoever shall speak against the 
Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him; neither 
in this world, nor in that which is to come” 
Gynt ts: 31,032), 

There is hardly a point of similarity between 
the case Doctor Lyall cites and the case Jesus is 
talking about. There is, in fact, some evidence, 
in what the poor fellow said to Doctor Lyall, that 
he had not committed the unpardonable sin; for 
he desired others to be warned. He was con- 
cerned about their salvation. Henry Ward 
Beecher said: ‘“‘ No man need fear that he has 
committed the unpardonable sin who is deeply 
alarmed and anxious about it; for the very nature 
of that sin is moral insensibility.” 

There are many sins which, if continued and 
persisted in, cause one to belost. Rejecting Christ, 
abiding in unbelief, procrastination until the last 
opportunity slips away, any act or failure to act 
that leaves one in his sins, until the black mes- 
senger of death calls, causes one to be lost. But 
it is evident that Jesus is talking about a sin 
that has in itself a fatal quality. One who com- 
mits it is “guilty of an eternal sin,” he says. 
Some sins are fatal because they are repeated 
until one uses up his “day of grace,” but not 
because they have in themselves a fatal and final 
quality. For example, one could put off from 
G 


98 A STUDY, OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


day to day planting his crop until the season 
is past and it is impossible for him to gather in 
a harvest. But we can think of it being possible 
for one to go out into his field and curse the soil 
and to render it barren for all time. It needs to 
be done but once. When it is first done it is 
finally done. So is this blasphemy against the 
Spirit. It is a terrible, damning sin. 

What, more definitely, is this sin? What kind 
of evil-speaking is it? How is it that one can 
be forgiven if he speaks against the Son but not 
if he speaks against the Holy Spirit? These are 
questions on which we should think carefully. 

We do not believe that any judgment of God 
is arbitrary. If a sin is unpardonable, it is not 
because God is limited in love and mercy. The 
Holy Spirit is not more holy than the Son is. 
There is, therefore, something in this sin that af- 
fects the blasphemer and renders him hopelessly 
wicked, as there is not in speaking against Christ. 
This sin was directed against Christ, but this fact 
did not give to it its blackest quality. Its black- 
est quality was that it maligned, slandered, and 
traduced the Holy Spirit. Jesus worked a miracle 
by the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees said he did it 
by Beelzebub, the chief of evil spirits, or Satan. 
In Mark we have the explanatory statement, 
“Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 99 


Their sin was simply this: They identified a 
good spirit with an evil spirit, the Holy Spirit 
with the devil. They called white black. Some 
persons are partially color-blind. They cannot 
distinguish shades of green and blue. But if one 
were so color-blind that he could not tell white 
from black, he would be totally blind. And sup- 
pose he could by speaking the word render him- 
self thus unable to tell white from black. He 
would be as blind as one without eyes. 

Now these Pharisees did this thing to them- 
selves morally and spiritually. They made them- 
selves hopeless as to salvation. Before death they 
determined for themselves their own doom. 
They decided for themselves, before their day 
of probation was ended, their eternal destiny. 
They chose it. They willed it. By one act they 
made themselves incapable of repentance and fit 
only for perdition. Like Judas, now they must 
go to “their own place.” They committed soul- 
suicide. They took their soul in their own hand 
and threw it into hell. Such is man’s moral 
sovereignty over himself. Such is the nature of 
this terrible sin of wicked thoughts expressed in 
words. 

Prince Karl Lichnowsky, German Ambassador 
to England at the outbreak of the war in 1914, 
says that he, in supporting Berlin’s policy, com- 


IOO A STUDY’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


mitted “a sin against the Holy Ghost.” ? It is 
not clear what he means, but it is true that the 
German rulers did politically what the Pharisees 
in their day did religiously. To justify what they 
did, they defended the breaking of national agree- 
ments, proclaimed that might is right, that a na- 
tion is not accountable to the moral law, and 
praised anything and everything that ministered 
to their vicious and degenerate purpose. This 
was in a political sense, if I may so speak, the 
sin against the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to 
trust such men. President Wilson did a coura- 
geous thing, but a thing which the conscience of 
the world requires, when he proclaimed, long be- 
fore that band of conspirators against the civil- 
ization and peace of the world began to show 
signs of weakening, that no terms of peace would 
be discussed with them, that they were not even 
to be treated with. He was simply taking them 
at their own word. They have, in the eyes of the 
world, committed an unpardonable _ political 
crime. It will never be forgiven by men. 

It may be asked, Can this sin be committed 
now? I heard a teacher of note reason in this 
way: When the Pharisees committed this sin 
Jesus was present and had just worked a miracle 
which they could not deny. These conditions not 


2Cf. “My Mission to London,” p. 39.'  , 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT TOI 


existing now this sin may not be possible now. 
But in 1 John 5 : 16, 17 we read: “If any man 
see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he 
shall ask, and God will give him life for them 
that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto 
death : not concerning this do I say that he should 
make request. All unrighteousness is sin: and 
there is a sin not unto death.” It was, therefore, 
possible to commit the unpardonable sin, when 
the apostle John wrote this epistle, fifty years or 
more after the ascension. If it was possible to 
commit it half a century after Jesus was on earth, 
I see no reason why it may not be possible to 
commit it nineteen centuries after. 

Is this sin committed often? What are exam- 
ples of it? 

I do not believe that it is what it is commonly 
supposed to be, as has been said, but I believe 
that it is committed oftener than it is commonly 
supposed to be. John’s language suggests that 
it is not an infrequent occurrence. 

Robert Louis Stevenson describes, in his weird 
story, “ The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
Hyde,” the contest that rages within between the 
higher and the lower self. Doctor Jekyll, a noble 
and gifted physician, discovers and compounds 
in his laboratory a drug that transforms him into 
a base and despicable demon of a man, known as 


102 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


Mr. Hyde. The oftener he takes the drug, the 
stronger Mr. Hyde grows and the weaker Doctor 
Jekyll becomes. Finally Doctor Jekyll ceases to 
exist, and there is Mr. Hyde only. Stevenson 
was not picturing in this, his greatest work, a rare 
character. He is interpreting life. They are not 
few who transform themselves from Doctor 
Jekyll into Mr. Hyde; “ who say to the worm, 
Thou art my sister.” They say good-bye to the 
good and welcome to the bad. They take the 
fatal plunge and put to death the better self. 
They kill their conscience. They want it so. 
They make it so. It is so. It is eternally so. 

The sin of tempting the Holy Spirit. 

This was the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. 
Peter said: “ How is it that ye have agreed to- 
gether to try the Spirit of the Lord?” (Acts 
Bie Oye re 

Their sin was something more than miserliness. 
If every miser was turned into a corpse, the un- 
dertakers would have a thriving business. Their 
sin was something more than lying. If lightning 
should strike every liar, the population of the 
world would be greatly reduced. These sins are 
bad, but the sin of Ananias and Sapphira must 
have been something desperately wicked. The 
language of Peter revealed it. They “ agreed to- 
gether’ to do the deed. Peter said to Ananias: 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 103 


“Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the 
Holy Spirit? .. Thou hast not lied unto men, but 
unto God.” 

I see behind the scenes a plot not only to dis- 
credit the benevolence of the church in Jerusalem, 
but also to ridicule the Holy Spirit by whose 
power so many wonderful things, since the day 
of Pentecost, were being done, and by whose 
gracious agency they were stirred to so great be- 
nevolence. 

The sin of resisting the Holy Spirit. 

It was a long while before I cdme to under- 
stand the great speech of Stephen. But finally I 
found the key to it in this statement near the end 
of it: “ Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart 
and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as 
your fathers did, so do ye”’ (Acts 7: 51). 

Looking through the address with this as a 
leading thought I saw that Stephen cites exam- 
ples of how the Israelites resisted God and his 
Spirit. God began with Abraham to create a 
people for himself and to call them to higher 
things. He sent Moses to them to begin definitely 
to realize for them the promises to the patriarchs. 
Moses led them out of Egypt and at Sinai God 
gave them a revelation of himself in the com- 
mandments and in other ways. But they made 
a golden calf and lapsed into idolatry, Into 


104 A STUDY OF THE ‘HOLY SPIRIT 


idolatry again they fell after they had settled in 
the Promised Land, and God for punishment sent 
them into captivity to Babylon. Solomon built 
the temple, but he and the prophets explained that 
God is greater than the temple. (Cf. 1 Kings 8 : 
27; Isa. 66: 1f.) The worship of images was 
burned out of the Jews by the fires of the exile. 
There they got their system rid of that crude 
kind of idolatry. But idolatry of another kind 
is in them yet, namely, an overreverence for the 
temple. For the sake of that building they would 
put Christ to death and will now take the life of 
Stephen. Murderers they are and idolaters, wor- 
shiping brick and stone and a spot of ground 
rather than the true and living God. The spir- 
itual God as revealed in Jesus Christ they re- 
fused, and now the Holy Spirit, who calls them 
out of their narrowness, littleness, and hardness, 
they resist. The day of Pentecost means nothing 
to such brutish religionists. They are idolaters. 
They are joined to their idol. 

It is no wonder that God hates idolatry. It is 
a caricaturing of his character. It is more; it 
is cartooning the Almighty. But he who resists 
the Holy Spirit and rejects God’s spiritual king- 
dom, is an idolater. He may be many degrees 
above the fetish worshiper, but he is of the same 
class. Resisting the Holy Spirit is a great sin, 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 105 


The three sins which we have been discussing 
are sins committed by unsaved people. We come 
now to speak of two sins against the Holy Spirit 
which are committed by Christians: 

The sin of grieving the Holy Spirit. 

Paul says, ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of 
God in whom ye were sealed unto the day of re- 
demption’ (Eph. 4 > 30;-cf- Isai 63 :10)..: The 
meaning is this: Do not cause sorrow to the 
Holy Spirit. The same Greek word with a 
strengthening prefix is used of Jesus: “ And when 
he had looked round about on them in anger, be- 
ing grieved at the hardening of their heart, he 
saith unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand” 
(Mark 3). 5). ltus used of Peter? (Peter was 
grieved because he said unto him the third time, 
Lovest thou me?” (John 21 : 17.) Paul uses it 
of the Corinthians and of himself: “ But if any 
hath caused sorrow, he hath caused sorrow, not 
to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) 
tor younaln (2 Cari ahs 5). 

Paul’s conception of the Holy Spirit as capa- 
ble of grief or sorrow is proof of his personality. 
What is inanimate and impersonal cannot have 
sorrow. The Holy Spirit can be disappointed, 
wounded, because he has will, feeling, honor. 

His relation to us is that of a friend. If we 
disappoint him he is a wounded friend, but a 


106 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


faithful friend still, never an offended and 
estranged friend. We should appreciate and be 
sensitive to our side of this relation. As Chris- 
tian character may be known by its responsive- 
ness to the wish of Christ, so it is revealed also 
by its responsiveness to the mind of the Spirit. 

The sin of quenching the Holy S pirit. 

Paul commands, “Quench not the Spirit ” 
(1 Thess. 5: 19). The Greek word is well 
translated by “quench.” It occurs several times 
in the New Testament. (Cf. Matt. 12 : 20; 25°: 
Oi) Marky on 485) Eph. 6° 164\Hebiipieeaay 
The Greek adjective translated “ unquenchable ” 
is made from the same stem with the negative 
prefix. (Cf. Matt. 3 : 12; Mark9: 43; Luke3 : 
17.) In all these eight examples the thought is 
the ceasing, the causing to cease, the extinguish- 
ing, of fire, as in the case of the snuffing out or 
the dying out of the flame of a lamp. 

Paul’s thought is that the Holy Spirit prompts 
to action; he flames up within; he is a holy fire 
initiating thought, life, and action. Do not sup- 
press, do not stifle, do not choke out this divine 
flame. Notice that in the next sentence Paul says, 
““Despise not prophesying”’ (or preaching), an 
elemental quality of which is spontaneousness. 

This power of the Holy Spirit to cause the be- 
liever in whom he dwells to be moved by a holy 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 107 


impulse, to originate in him a new purpose, to 
cause him to “take the initiative,” is a_ vital 
quality. 

It is the secret of Christianity’s mastery over 
environment. The gospel cannot be “caged and 
tamed.” It will “break through.” It is an ex- 
plosive that will be liberated. It is like life in 
springtime that throws off the dead leaves of 
winter, that sheds the dead skin of the dead past 
and clothes itself with a new dress for a new day. 
Buddhism and Mohammedanism and all pagan 
religions lack this vital quality; and therefore 
cannot adapt themselves to new conditions. They 
become antiquated. ‘They are buried in the rub- 
bish of time. Christianity is not bound by cus- 
tom or conventionality or institutions. It is never 
out of date. It has the power of adaptation and 
adjustment. It creates for itself conditions and 
ages. It has this power because it has the Spirit 
of life. The breath of God is in it. Paul says, 
ee here then Spirit of: the | Lord:1s, there. is 
liberty ’’—liberty to understand to speak, to do. 
(Aire Cony 389" 5755 

And Christianity does all this because the Holy 
Spirit stirs men to take the initiative. The Holy 
Spirit said to the Church in Antioch, “ Separate 
me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto 
Pihavevealled thems (Acts-13': 2): Then’ fol- 


108 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


lowed missionary campaigns that revolutionized 
the world and whose influence still operates with 
accumulating force. 

Every great movement, missionary, evangel- 
istic, educational, or reformatory, that has blessed 
the world and advanced the kingdom of God, has 
originated in the same way. It was born in the 
heart of some Spirit-filled and Spirit-led servant 
of God. Carey, Judson, Moody, Wesley, Finney, 
Spurgeon, Broadus, Luther, Knox rise before us 
as we think on these things. Did institutions 
make these men? No, but they made institutions. 
Were they the product of their day and age? 
No, they gave rise to new and better days. God 
took them into cooperation with himself in creat- 
ing the world anew. The Holy Spirit in them 
made them creators together with God. They were 
‘divine artists, not representing history, but mak- 
ing history ; not painting, but creating; not imitat- 
ing, but originating. 

The Holy Spirit begets a genius for achieve- 
ment, progress, and leadership, which is, in the 
kingdom, what the spirit of invention and origin- 
ality is in the world of affairs. It is business wis- 
dom to encourage the latter; it is kingdom wis- 
dom to encourage the former. It is sin and 
stagnation to suppress either. There must be 
room in the church for the initiative of the Spirit. 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 109 


Paul points out to the church of Corinth that God 
is the God of order and not of confusion (1 Cor. 
14 : 33), but in that very connection he directs 
that in a meeting of the church, when one is 
speaking, a brother to whom a revelation is made 
must have the privilege to break in and make 
known his message from the Spirit. Human ac- 
rangements should be made subject to possible 
disarrangement by the Spirit. The Spirit must 
rule in the church. If not, progress ceases. 

It is the Spirit that calls men into the ministry. 
If they do not heed his call, “all the voyage of 
their lives will be bound in shallows and in 
miseries.” It is the Spirit that calls laymen into 
fields of special usefulness. If they do not re- 
spond, the springs of their lives will dry up, with- 
ered as by the drought of summer. It is the 
Spirit that gives us all visions of what we are to 
be and to do. If we, like Paul, are obedient to 
these heavenly visions, we shall, like him also, run 
and finish our course with joy. 

’God works from personal centers out. <A 
Christian filled with the Spirit is God’s dynamo 
radiating divine power. The size of the circum- 
ference of his influence is determined by the will 
of God only. neta 

Carlyle says that Puritanism came on the May- 
flower to New England from England, and. that 


IIO ATSTUDYU OF “THE HOLY SPIRIT 


England got it from Scotland, and that Scotland 
got it from John Knox, and that it originated 
in the heart of John Knox. At the age of forty 
he was a member of the body of Reformers, a 
priest attending to his duties, modest and un- 
known except by a little circle of friends of the 
same faith. One day at the close of his sermon 
in the chapel, the preacher called upon Mr. Knox 
to speak the thoughts that he and the congrega- 
tion felt were in him. He tried to speak, but could 
not. He“ burst into a flood of tears,’’ says Car- 
lyle, “and ran out.” But the fire was smoldering 
within him, and it was not long until it broke 
forth in a mighty flame, and John Knox not only 
spoke, but acted and led and created a new Scot- 
land, a “resurrection as from death.’ He 
started a movement that went to England and 
came to. America and is now sweeping back to 
Europe and around the world. In speaking of 
America’s part in the World War and of the vic- 
tory of the Allies, an Englishman in London said, 
“After nearly three hundred years at last the 
Mayflower has returned home.” Let us not for- 
get that this world movement to liberty, democ- 
racy, and peace began in the soul of one man 
that let God have his way with him and whom 
the Spirit of God stirred up, fired up. 

That is a good expression, “‘ The Spirit moved 


SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT II! 


9 


him.” Some Christians are, if I may so speak, 
like the old Ford automobile. They have to be 

“cranked ” before they can get themselves going. 
But some have a “ self-starter.”’ The Spirit of 
the living God is in them. They are the leaders, 
the teachers, the preachers, the missionaries, the 
prophets, the evangelists, the thinkers, the suffer- 
ers, the martyrs, the givers, the doers, the in- 
spirers of their fellow Christians. 

Nothing can quench the Spirit of God unless 
the possessor of the Spirit permits it, wills it so. 
Persecution cannot do it. Limitations cannot do 
it. Bunyan’s Pilgrim saw a fire burning against 
a wall and, despite the buckets of water thrown 
on it, the flames leaped up higher and _ hotter. 
Then it was explained to him that the fire was 
fed by oil supplied by a man unseen behind the 
wall; that the man that poured on the water was 
. the devil and the man that supplied the oil was 
Christ. Christ’s reservoir of oil is greater than 
the devil’s reservoir of water. If only we will let 
Christ supply the oil, the fire will continue to 
burn, and no power can quench it. 

It is, I say, a sin, a great sin, to quench this 
holy fire of God within us. He who does it sup- 
presses the flame of life. He puts a damper 
upon, he retards, if he does not blast as with the 
frost of winter, the very life of God that is in 


IIl2 A’ STUDY:.OF' THE HOLY SPIRIT 


him. There was a voice that said: “ Sit down 
young man! When God wants the heathen saved 
he will do it without your help or mine.” It was 
a voice from Hades, though spoken, it may be, 
by Christian lips. But Carey did not heed it. 
In his heart he must have said, as Jesus said to 
Peter, “ Get thee behind me, Satan!’’ And Carey 
became the greatest missionary since Paul. 


“QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT.” 


VI 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! 
Thou art the Potter; I am the clay. 

Mold me and make me after thy will, 

While I am waiting, yielded and still. 


Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! 
Search me and try me, Master, today 

Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now, 

As in thy presence humbly I bow. 


Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! 
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray! 
Power—all power—surely is thine! 

Teach me and heal me, Saviour divine! 


Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! 
Hold o’er my being absolute sway! 

Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see 

Christ only, always, living in me. 


THE POWER OF THE TOLY SPIREL 


I’ we express in one word the ministry of the 
Spirit to men of the world, that word is con- 
viction. (Cf. John 16 : 8-11.) If we express in 
one word the ministry of the Spirit to believers, 
that word is power. | 
“Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit 

is come tipon you!) (Acts 112 Sy: 

“God gave us not the Spirit of fearfulness; 
butotipower 32 Tint <7): 

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my 
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4 : 6). 

“Greater works than these shall ye do; be- 
cause I go unto the Father” (John 14: 12). 

“Tt is expedient for you that I go away; for 
if I go not away, the Comforter will not come 
unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you ” 
(jonnTGus, 7): 

“The kingdom of God is not in word, but in 
power’. (1 Cor.\4.2)20). 

There are many kinds of power. God can use 
any of them and all of them when he wills and as 
he wills. 

There is physical power. God has at times 
+15 


116 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


used it. He used the animal strength of Samson 
and the athletic skill of David. The world ad- 
mires this kind of power. But God’s people must 
not trust much in it. Elijah used force on Mt. 
Carmel and slew the prophets of Baal, but God 
taught him in Horeb by the “still small voice ” 
the lesson of gentleness. 

There is financial power. It is the world’s god. 
It is our God’s instrument. He uses it, but he 
values it only lightly. He can do without it. 
Peter said to the lame man: “ Silver and gold 
have I none; but what I have, that give I thee ” 
(Acts 3: 6). Then he gave him power to walk 
and earn his own living—something infinitely 
better than money. Since the world worships 
money, God has very little use for it. 

There is intellectual power. The world wor- 
ships at this shrine also. “‘ Knowledge is power,” 
it says. It builds its educational institutions, be- 
stows its degrees, and sends forth its sons to con- 
quer. 

God uses knowledge. He hates it when it is 
exalted overmuch. He despises the worldly 
brand of knowledge. But true knowledge, the 
really scientific kind, he uses and has always used 
it. In fact, we may say that it is indispensable 
to his method. Look and see if you can find 
where God ever made use of fools and idiots. 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 117 


No, he uses men of wisdom. And if they have it 
not when he calls them, they acquire it in his 
great school. 

God thinks little of matter and money and 
much of mind. But he does not give it the first 
place, nor the second, nor the third. It has a sub- 
ordinate rank, fourth place or yet lower. 

It was not intellectual power or insight that 
Jesus promised to the waiting disciples. 

There is also moral power or influence. 

Pure and simple goodness is beautiful to be- 
hold, and it has its victories too. The world 
praises it and throws its bouquets at the honest 
and benevolent man, and sometimes elects him to 
office. | 

And this kind of men God also honors. He 
values them so highly that he will have no other 
kind to do his work. It is said that a thirsty man 
will drink as readily out of a tin can as a golden 
goblet. But decent people demand that the can 
be clean. Dishonest men, stingy men, selfish men, 
God will dump out on the rubbish-heap. 

But something more is needed than simple 
goodness. Jesus did not tell the disciples that 
they would become good on the day of Pente- 
cost. Mere goodness will not convert the world. 
It is goodness plus something that converts the 
world. 


118 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


There is another kind of power. It is not 
any one of the four I have mentioned, nor is it 
all of these combined. It is something other and 
more heavenly, more divine, more mysterious 
than these. It is spiritual power, or it is the 
power of the Spirit of God. The other kinds of 
power are human; their source is men. This fifth 
kind is divine; its source is God. Its existence 
proves the presence of God. It comes down 
from above. Its nature is mysterious, but its 
effect 1s as obvious as the sound of the wind. 

The power of the Spirit is the ability so to live 
and witness for Christ that men will believe on 
him. “Ye shall receive power,” Jesus said. 
Power for what? Power to bring in the king- 
dom. Power to cause men to repent and believe. 

There is a great difference between Christians in 
the matter of their effectiveness as soul-winners. 
Here are two persons who are equally well edu- 
cated and are equally good and worthy in charac- 
ter. But one wins many souls; the other, few or 
none. It is said that Barnabas “ was a good man, 
and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 
11: 24). His goodness did not explain his use- 
fulness. It was his goodness plus his faith and 
his spiritual fulness that explained it. 

Many questions of vital interest press for an 
answer : 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT  IIQ 


Is the power of the Spirit intended for all 
Christians or for only a limited number? 

If for all Christians, does the Holy Spirit come. 
upon them when they become Christians or at a 
later time? 

Is there a distinct experience of equipment for 
service for every believer comparable with the 
experience of regeneration? 

Is there a Pentecostal experience as well as 
Pentecostal power for every Christian? 

May one have the grace of the Holy Spirit that 
saves and sanctifies him and not the power of the 
Holy Spirit that qualifies him for service? 

Is the receiving of the Holy Spirit in power for 
service a momentary act or a gradual process? 

Are we to expect now as proof of the coming 
and presence of the Holy Spirit any miraculous 
manifestations? 

If it is the privilege of every Christian to have 
the power of the Holy Spirit for service, or in- 
creased power for increasing service, should we 
not be earnestly seeking for it and righteously 
living that we may possess it? 

We shall try to answer these leading questions 
as carefully and'as simply as possible. 

As a preparatory step we should consider that 
the laws of the Spirit are like the laws of life. 
Some are easily discerned and some are subtle 


I20 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


and evade any analysis that we are capable of. 
We do not apply mechanical rules to life, and we 
should not attempt to limit the Spirit of God 
by such rules. 

1. My first simple proposition is that the power 
of the Spirit is intended for all Christians. 

“ I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh ” 
(Acts2) 17), 

‘For to you is the promise, and to your chil- 
dren, and to all that are afar off, even as many 
as the Lord our God shall call unto him” (Acts 
2: 39). 

‘“ He shall give you another Comforter, that he 
may be with you forever” (John 14 : 16). The 
power of the Holy Spirit was not for the apostles 
and their generation alone, but for us as well. 

2. My second simple proposition is that, while 
the Holy Spirit comes to every believer to re- 
generate him and is in his life to sanctify him, he 
is not, by virtue of this fact, in every Christian 
to give him power for effective witnessing. 

This is the meaning of Pentecost. The dis- 
ciples had the Holy Spirit in the former sense be- 
fore that day. The Samaritans believed and were 
baptized ; they were true disciples and were born 
of the Spirit before they received the power of 
the Spirit. (Acts 8: 14ff.) Paul tells the Gala- 
tians that they began the Christian life in the 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I2I 


Spirit, but are failing to walk in the Spirit. (Gal. 
3: 2, 3,14; 5: 25.) 

The life of Jesus teaches us the same truth. 
When he was baptized the Holy Spirit descended 
upon him. (Luke 3 : 22.) But surely it is not to 
be supposed that he was without the Spirit in 
some sense before this; but that now the Spirit 
has come to fill and fit him for his ministry. (Cf. 
Matteaie 15 Lukeis 22374 2.1, 24, 18.) 

3. My third simple proposition ts that the Holy 
Spirit may come to one to save him and to fit 
him for service at different times, or to do both 
at the same time. 

The cases already dealt with prove the first 
part of the proposition and need not be reviewed 
again. The experience of Paul, if he was saved 
on the way to Damascus, which seems to be the 
fact, and not later, when the scales fell from his 
eyes and he received the Holy Spirit, points in 
the same direction. (Acts 9 : 5, 17-19; cf. 1 Cor. 
12: 3.) But the interval between the two events 
was brief. His conversion and his being filled 
with the Spirit were the beginning and the com- 
pletion of one revolutionary experience. 

The case of Cornelius, however, proves con- 
clusively the second part of the proposition. Cor- 
nelius and the other believers in his house were 
saved and received the power of the Holy Spirit 


122 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


at the same time. (Acts 10: 44-48; cf. I1: 
14.) 

The fact that John the Baptist was “ filled with 
the Holy Spirit’ from his birth is also a proof 
Of it: ( buke 12725") 

To hold that some time must elapse between 
conversion and the receiving of the power of the 
Spirit, as some able writers have done, seems ' 
contrary to the Scriptures; though most of the 
cases in them are of this kind.* 

4. My fourth simple proposition 1s that we can- 
not determine the way in which the power of 
the Holy Spirit may come upon one by any ex- 
ternal, physical, or conventional consideration or 
limitation. 

The Holy Spirit, like the Father and the Son, 
is sovereign. He does as he wills to. As we 
cannot prescribe mechanical rules for his process 
in producing the new birth, so we cannot do this 
for his manner of administering power. 

He came on some by the laying on of the apos- 
tte’s’ hands: * (Acts. 83.17; 19 :6.):.On ?Paul 
he came by the laying on of the hands of Ananias. 
(Acts 9 : 17.) On some he came without the lay- 
ing on of the hands of any one. (Acts 2: I-4; 
10: 44.) In most cases he came upon the dis- 
ciples after baptism. (Acts 2: 4;8: 16,17; 19: 


1Cf, “ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 77. 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 123 


5, 6.) But in one case, and probably a second, 
they received the power of the Holy Spirit before 
baptism: (Acts 103.4739 :.17, 18.) 

By his very nature the Spirit is not subject to 
limitations of this kind. “‘ Where the Spirit of 
therl_ord’1s,, there is liberty «(2 Cores 3417): 

When the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon 
Christians, there may be miraculous manifesta- 
tons, and there may not be. 

There were miraculous manifestations when he 
came upon Jesus at his baptism; when he came 
upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost; and 
when he came upon those that believed in 
Cesarea. But that was the age of miracles. And 
there were many cases of individuals and 
churches having the power of the Spirit, concern- 
ing whom there is no mention of miracles when 
they received it. It is so in the experience of re- 
generation. In Paul’s conversion there was 
miracle. In the conversion of Zacchzus there was 
not. This age is not an age of miracles, and we 
should expect no miraculous manifestations either 
in conversion or in the induement of power. 
Seek not for miracles, but for power. “ An ae 
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign” 
(Matt 12.°; 30) 

Again I say there are no tered rules for 
the Holy Spirit’s action. He breaks through 


{24 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


all external, physical, and conventional bound- 
aries. He destroys all “forms of godliness,” 
for he is the “ power thereof.” Power creates 
its Own processes and channels of expression. 
The Spirit who gives freedom to believers is him- 
self free. 

5. My fifth simple proposition is that the en- 
duement of the Spirit for service may be an in- 
stantaneous experience, or it may be a gradual 
process. 

In the experience of salvation the Holy Spirit 
comes at once to dwell in the believer. In many 
instances in the New Testament he came also 
all at once to give power for service, as on the 
day of Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius 
and other occasions already discussed. 

Does he come thus instantaneously now? Who 
would deny it? 

D. L. Moody spoke once at Northfield of his 
own experience thus: 


This blessing came upon me suddenly—iike a flash of 
lightning. For months I had been hungering and 
thirsting for power in service. I had come to that point 
that I think I would have died if I had not got it. I 
remember I was walking in the streets of New York. 
I had no more heart in the business I was about than 
if I had not belonged to this world at all. Right there 
on the street the power of God seemed to come upon 
me. I was filled with a sense of God’s goodness and 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 125 


felt as though I could take the whole world to my 
heart. 1 took the old sermon that I had preached 
before without any power; it was the same old truth, 
but there was a new power. Many were impressed and 
converted. This happened years after I was converted 
myself. It was in the fall of 1871. I had been very 
anxious to have a large Sunday school and a large 
congregation, but there were few conversions. I re- 
member I used to take pride in having the largest con- 
gregation in Chicago on a Sunday night. Two godly 
women used to come and hear me. One of them came 
to me one night after I had preached very satisfactorily 
as I thought. I fancied she was going to congratulate 
me on my success, but she said, “ We are praying for 
you.” I wondered if I had made some blunder that 
they talked that way. Next Sunday night they were 
there again, evidently in prayer while I was preaching. 
One of them said, “ We are still praying for you.” I 
could not understand it, and said: ‘“ Praying for me! 
Why don’t you pray for the people? I am all right.” 
“Ah,” they said, “you are not all right. You have 
not got power; there is something lacking, but God can 
qualify you.” I did not like it at first, but I got to 
thinking it over, and after a little time I began to feel 
a desire to have what they were praying for. They 
continued to pray for me, and the result was that at 
the end of three months God sent this blessing on me. 
I would not for the whole world go back to where I 
was before 1871. Since then I have never lost the 
assurance that I am walking in communion with God, 
and I have a joy in his service that sustains me and 
makes it easy work. I believe I was an older man 
then than I am now; and I have been growing ever 


126 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


since. I used to be very tired when preaching three 
times a week; now I can preach the gospel five times 
a day and never get tired at all. I have done three 
times the work I did before, and it gets better and 
better every year. It is so easy to do a thing when 
love prompts you. It would be better, it seems to me, 
to go and break stones than to take to preaching in a 
professional spirit. A man can accomplish more in 
one year with this power than he can do in forty years 
without it. Jonathan Edwards said he was able to do 
more in Northampton in one week than he did in 
seven years before the Spirit of God came upon him 
for service. 


I cite this experience of Mr. Moody because 
it is clearly stated, and because we all count him 
a sincere and practical Christian. He was not 
“ flighty,” and he was not given to claiming too 
much for himself. He had a large fund of com- 
mon sense and splendid poise of mind. 

Mr. Moody’s experience in its main features is 
duplicated in the lives of many men of our day. 

But many men of spiritual power and great 
usefulness do not have such an experience to 
relate. I have not heard nor read of such an ex- 
perience in the lives of John A. Broadus, Ado- 
niram Judson, C. H. Spurgeon, and W. A. Sun- 
day. These men, it seems, did not have the 
experience, but they had the power, which is the 
essential thing. 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 127 


6. My sixth simple proposition is that the 
power of the Holy Spirit for service comes upon 
Christians in proportion as they desire it, appro- 
priate it by faith, and are worthy of tt. 

It is the will of Christ that his people, all of 
them, have power. “ Now on the last day, the 
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, 
saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me 
and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scrip- 
ture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers 
of living water. But this spake he of the Holy 
Spirit, which they that believed on him were to 
receive .(john7 ¢137-20). 

I do not mean that we can merit the power 
of God or any grace from him; but that we must 
so live as to be trustworthy of his gift. Cer- 
tainly the Spirit of power, who is also the Spirit 
of holiness, will not come upon unholy, selfish, 
and worldly-minded Christians. 

This blessing comes to those who keep the 
commandments of Christ. (Acts 5 : 32.) Rebels 
have no part in the Holy Spirit, nor have they 
who are impractical and spend their time “ gazing 
into heaven” (Acts 1: 11). The disciples 
were found doing what Jesus told them to do 
when the power came upon them... Had they 
stayed on the Mount of Olives they would have 
missed it. 


128 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


Nor will the power of the Holy Spirit come to 
those who do not desire it. This gift of God 
must be prized and sought for as other blessings 
of grace are. So the Holy Spirit comes by 
prayer. He came on the Samaritans as a result 
of the prayer of others for them. (Acts 8 : 15.) 
But he will come to those who ask for the Holy 
Spirit for themselves. (Luke 11 : 13.) 

I hold that to every Christian the power of the 
Holy Spirit is given by measure. To Jesus he 
was given without measure or limitation. (Cf. 
John 3: 34.) But all imperfect followers of 
Jesus have this power with limitation. As Godet 
well says, ‘Man is a vessel destined to receive 
God, a vessel which must be enlarged in propor- 
tion as it is filled, and filled in proportion as it is 
enlarged.”’ 

In harmony with this view is Paul’s exhorta- 
tion to be “ filled with the Spirit ” (Eph. 5 : 18). 
As our love may be meager or abundant, so our 
supply of the Spirit may range from the mini- 
mum to the maximum. 

The degree of the power of the Spirit that the 
Christian possesses depends upon himself. God’s 
will is to fill him according to his desire, conse- 
cration, and capacity. God’s reservoir of power 
is stored up for his use. He can have it if he 
wills to have it. 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 129 


By this I do not mean that he by striving, or 
by his own power, can bring down this gift of 
God; for it is received by faith. By faith we re-_ 
ceive his new birth and by faith we receive his 
power. (Cf. Gal. 3: 2, 14.) We do not get 
the Holy Spirit; we receive the Holy Spirit. 

It is not by a mere willing or a mere saying, 
“ Lord fill me,” that one can obtain this gift of 
God. Some seem to think it is, “ Presto, I have 
the power of the Spirit.” But spiritual power 
does not come by a sleight-of-mind performance. 
There is no “little secret”? to right living and 
effectual witnessing. The laws of the Spirit are 
the laws of life. Life has many secrets, but no 
tricks. Simon the sorcerer could not buy the 
power of the Spirit, nor can any one steal it or 
get it by stealth. God gives it. But he gives it 
to whom he will and to him who is worthy and 
as he 1s worthy. 

Spirit-filled workers is the great need in our 
day as it has ever been. Mighty courage, mighty 
utterances, and mighty deeds have characterized 
such servants of God. When they are described 
as “‘ filled with the Holy Spirit,’ we may look for 
something wonderful to happen. (Cf. Acts 4: 
Soir se SSR Oo Tod Ts ye} 

Mr. John R. Mott thus expresses the challenge 
of our day and hour: 

I 


130 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


When I made my first journey around the world I 
went home and wrote a book in which I laid great 
stress upon the need of an increase in the number of 
foreign missionaries. When I returned from my second 
tour I laid stress upon the need of a great army of 
native workers, sons and daughters of the soil. When 
I came back from my third extended journey to the 
East I was led to see that I had taken a very super- 
ficial view. What we need is not so much an increase 
in the number of missionaries, not so much a vast army 
of native workers; what we need is the discovery of 
the hiding of God’s power and the secret of the re- 
leasing of that power. We need more workers through 
whom God shall have his opportunity.” 


Dr. A. J. Gordon thus illustrates the inheri- 
tance of spiritual power that has become ours by 
the ascension of Jesus: 


My children, I have provided well for your needs; 
but your condition is one of poverty compared with 
what it may become. By the death of a kinsman in 
my native country I have become heir to an immense 
estate. If you will only submit cheerfully to my leav- 
ing you and crossing the sea and entering into my 
inheritance, I will send you back a thousand times 
more than you could have by my remaining with you. 


Dr. Cortland Myers thus illustrates the privi- 
lege that is ours of utilizing God’s dynamo of 
spiritual power: 


THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 131 


Bent with age, weak, and almost helpless, she stands 
at the corner of the street. The steel tracks and cop- 
per wires stretch out in front of her. She watches for 
the car. It comes in sight and rushes through the — 
street, pushed on by an unseen force. She can have 
no relation to that; it has apparently no relation to 
her, only to frighten her or make her marvel at the 
mystery. This is not true. She walks out toward the 
fast-moving wonder of our modern age and lifts her 
feeble old hand, and instantly the car stops. She ex- 
pected it to stop. What! An old, crippled woman 
stop an electric-car! Certainly. The whole mechan- 
ism of that system of trolley-cars was built for her 
and around her. She has been dealing with one of 
the most stupendous forces in Gods great world and 
made it a part of her life. Understand it? No. Use 
it? Yes. She steps in the car, and in comfort and 
almost an incredibly short space of time she has ar- 
rived at her destination, then lifts her finger, and the 
world of electricity is at her command. She has ac- 
complished all this in the presence of a great mystery 
and without a sneer from the scientific world. Trans- 
fer this to the prayer world and give the old saint her 
chance. 


‘ 


Barnabas “was a good man, and full of the 
Holy Spirit and of faith; and much people was 
added unto the Lord” (Acts 11 : 24). “ Be not 
drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled 
with the Spirit’ (Eph. 5 : 18). 


Vil 


eb Hy vel CU VTE IN EY 


Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! 
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; 
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! 
God in three persons, blessed Trinity ! 


Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee, 

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy 
sea ; 

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, 

Who wert, and art, and evermore shall be. 


Holy, holy, holy! Tho’ the darkness hide thee, 
Tho’ the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, 
Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee 
Perfect in power, in love and purity. 


Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! 

All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and 
sky, and sea; 

Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty ! 

God in three persons, blessed Trinity! 


LAE HOUYC TRINITY, 


yA eons things should be said briefly concern- 
ing the subject of the Trinity. It is often 
thought of and treated as a philosophic doctrine; 
but there is none also more vital and practical. It 
is a touchstone of orthodoxy or heresy. 

1. The doctrine of the Trinity should not be 
considered a contradiction in terms. As the word 
indicates, it is the doctrine of a three-oneness, 
that God is both three and one. But it does not 
mean that God is three and one in the same sense. 
This would be unreasonable. We are never called 
on to believe what contradicts reason, though we 
must often in both science and religion believe 
what transcends reason; and it is most reasonable 
to do this. He who will not do this closes to him- 
self the door of knowledge. 

2. That there is only one true God is the voice 
of revelation, the conclusion of reason, and the 
logic of history and human progress. Belief in 
many gods weakens nations politically and society 
morally. More than three thousand years ago 
Moses thundered forth this truth, as the first 
principle in the constitution of the religious and 
135 


136 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


political state he was founding: ‘“‘ Hear, O Israel, 
the Lord our God is one Lord.” 

3. But the unity of God does not exclude per- 
sonal distinctions within the divine being and 
nature. Denying a multiplicity of gods is not 
denying the multiplexity or complexity of the 
one true God. The absolute simplicity of the 
divine being was a theory of Spinoza and is 
fundamental in his absolute pantheism. It is a 
dark and deadly doctrine. Plurality within the 
unity of God is implied in the Old Testament 
revelations. (Cf. Gen. 1 : 26; 3 tn 225 Isat6ns.8)) 

4. Imperfect illustrations in nature of the di- 
vine Trinity abound: as the three branches of a 
tree that unite in one trunk—they are both three 
and one; the one human being that has a physical 
nature, an intellectual nature and a moral nature; 
the one government of the United States with 
its legislative, judicial, and executive depart- 
ments; the one object in space with three dimen- 
sions, length, breadth, and thickness; the one 
human mind with three faculties, feeling, knowl- 
edge, and will. And in the one faculty of knowl- 
edge itself, there are three elements, the knowing 
subject, the object known, and the act of know- 
ing, or, as it has been expressed concisely in philo- 
sophic terms, all knowledge involves, or combines, 
or is, intellect, intelligible, and intelligence. But 


THE HOLY TRINITY 137 


all illustrations of the Trinity come short of pre- 
senting a satisfactory statement. 

5. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit 
are one in essence and nature. They think the 
same, they will the same. They exist and act in 
perfect harmony. Being perfect their mutual 
love is perfect. Discord between them is impos- 
sible. In them there is naught but unity in plan 
and purpose. This oneness of thought and life is 
grounded in oneness of nature and essence. The 
Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is 
God. | 

A spiritual person cannot read his Bible with- 
out feeling that the deity of the Holy Spirit is in 
its very breath. It is in the baptismal formula of 
Matthew. (Matt. 28: 19.) It is in the oft-re- 
peated Pauline benediction. (2 Cor. 13: 14.) 
Every conception of the Holy Spirit presented in 
the Bible calls for adoration and worship. Dt- 
vine power proceeds from him; divine attributes 
are ascribed to him; divine offices and honors are 
assigned to him. All this is there, implicit in 
thought, if not explicit in words. 

6. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three 
in person. These names present personal dis- 
tinctions. The Father is a person, the Son is a 
person, the Holy Spirit is a person. 

It matters not that the word “ person ” is not 


138 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


found in the Bible. It matters not what its origin 
was, savory or unsavory. It is a good word now 
and expresses the truth we find revealed there. 
One's orthodoxy or heterodoxy may be detected 
by his stand or failure to stand here. It is hotly 
contested ground, but it is holy ground. The dis- 
tinctions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not 
temporal, but eternal. They are not manifesta- 
tions merely of one God; they are the internal, 
eternal, and personal distinctions within the be- 
ing of one God. The Father speaks to the Son; 
the Son to the Father; they send the Holy Spirit; 
the Holy Spirit guides and glorifies the Son, and 
makes intercession to the Father. Let no one 
say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is sim- 
ply God revealing himself in three ways. This is 
not the truth. 

It is readily admitted, however, that the word 
person may not express all the truth. It is but 
an illustration, an attempt to understand the di- 
vine nature by analogy to human nature, and 
though there is more truth in this than in any 
other illustration or analogy, it also falls short. 
Divine personality transcends human personality. 
Our ladder reaches up into the nature of God, 
but not to the summit of his nature. 

7. It seems proper to say that the persons of 
the Trinity, though equal in essence and charac- 


THE HOLY TRINITY 139 


ter, are of unequal rank in position and office. 
This is possible. It is, to be sure, the fact in an 
ideal home. The father and son are one in flesh 
and spirit and name. To make one inferior 1s to 
dishonor the other. And yet the father com- 
mands and the son obeys. 

So the Son of God obeys his Father, though 
equal with him. In the garden he said, “ Not 
my will, but thine, be done’? (Luke 22: 42). 
Paul says that at the end of the world the Son 
will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. (1 Cor. 
15: 24.) And yet all should “honor the Son, 
even as they honor the Father” (John 5 : 23). 
Father and son are correlative terms and suggest 
both equality of nature and inequality of rank 
and position. 

By the same process of reasoning we conclude 
that the Holy Spirit is both equal to and sub- 
ordinate to the Father and the Son. He is sent to 
minister to Christians by the Father and the 
Son. (John 14: 26; 15: 26.) He glorifies the 
Son. He prays to the Father. But he receives 
equal honors with them. His name, that is, his 
nature and character, is on a par with theirs. (Cf. 
Watts 28210 52: Gora 13214143) 

8. It does not seem possible to classify very 
distinctly the works of grace as attributable ex- 
clusively to the different divine persons. For ex- 


140 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


ample, it is often said that our redemption is the 
work of Christ and our sanctification is the work 
of the Holy Spirit. But Christ has a part also 
in our sanctification, and certainly the Father has 
a part in our redemption. (Cf. John 3: 16.) It 
is said that ‘‘ Christ is our advocate in heaven, 
the Holy Spirit is our advocate in the soul.” But 
the Holy Spirit is our advocate in heaven also. 
(Cf. Rom. 8 : 26, 27.) It is said that creating is 
the work of the Father, saving the work of the 
Son, and perfecting the work of the Holy Spirit. 
But both the Son and the Holy Spirit were also 
active in the creation of the world. (Cf. Gen. 1 : 
2; John 1: 3.) The Father also is active in the 
salvation of the soul. (Cf. 1 John 3:9; 4: 7; 
5: 1.) The Son also is active in perfecting the 
Christian. (Cf. Phil. 1: 6.) It is said that “ all 
outgoing seems to be the work of Christ, all re- 
turn to God the work of the Spirit.” If this 
means anything, it means what is non-biblical and 
pagan. 

These and like attempts at a classification on 
this basis of the works of grace result from a 
practical and imperfect induction. They are me- 
chanical efforts. It is trying to force an analysis 
where it does not belong. The works of grace 
cannot be divided into three classes and assigned 
to the three divine persons as a number of objects 


THE HOLY TRINITY 14f 


may be put into three classes and placed in three 
rooms. Christian character and the Holy Trinity 
will not yield themselves to so crude a treatment. — 
A false and forced analysis does not create clear- 
ness, but confusion. Again let us remember 
that in studying the Holy Trinity we are dealing 
with life and persons, not with mechanics and 
logic. 

g. That the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are 
eternal and divine persons and yet are one in be- 
ing and nature, essence, and energy, is not only 
the simple truth as seen in many passages of 
Scripture, but it is a fundamental truth in the 
gospel. It is not an overstatement to say that 
without it there is no gospel. Without it the 
most assuring sentence of the Bible, “God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son,” has no meaning, the doctrine of the atone- 
ment is a fiction, salvation from sin a delusion, 
and the preaching of the Cross a crime. Without 
the Trinity God is not the Christian’s God, “ Our 
Father who art in heaven”’; he is the pantheist’s 
God, the Unitarian’s god, the Christian Scientist’s 
god, the Mohammedan’s god, the idolater’s god, 
a god made by human hands or human minds, it 
matters little which. . 

Neander, realizing the truth of what we are 
observing, said of the doctrine of the Trinity, 


142 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 


“ We recognize therein the essential contents of 
Christianity summed up in brief.” 

10. Christian experience is also a mighty con- 
firmation of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

If Jesus be not God, to say that he is God is a 
lie, a corrupting, damning lie. Every lie de- 
grades. There is nothing that does degrade, but 
a lie. But to worship Christ is elevating. He 
who goes down on his knees before Christ imme- 
diately feels himself lifted up. Slavery to Christ 
is freedom. To serve him is to reign. To be his 
subject is to be a king. If Christ be not God, 
to consider him God is idolatry, and all idolatry 
is debasing, bedulling, deadening. Where is su- 
persitition? It is not in him who cries, “ Jesus of 
Nazareth, I worship thee.” All true science is 
born in such a mind; because it is truth. 

Again if the Holy Spirit is not God, it is 
idolatry to say so. But where is piety? Who is 
the real saint? Who is it that is living the sacri- 
ficial life? It is none other than the Christian 
who believes in, honors, is led by, and is full 
of the Holy Spirit. Let one deny the Holy Spirit, 
or say that he is an impersonal influence, or speak 
of him carelessly, or think of him unworthily, and 
to such an one the door of usefulness is closed 
and progress in Christian character is at a stand- 
still. Charles Kingsley, conscious of this truth, 


THE HOLY TRINITY 143 


said that “whether the doctrine of the Trinity 
is in the Bible or no, it ought to be there, because 
our spiritual nature cries out for it.” 


To the great One in Three 
The highest praises be, 
Hence evermore; 
His sovereign majesty 
May we in glory see, 
And to eternity 
Love and adore. 


_ Date Due 


Ln LM ii) 


019 2625 


